We are dog lovers to the max. We have 5 and as a result it is cheaper to get a kennel license for them rather than register them individually. I should have said we have 4 as of yesterday at 4:30pm. This is a little of the story.
In may of 1999, I was coming home from work ( I drive a truck and am gone for a week at a time), on the corner where I turned to go to our house someone had tied a golden retriever puppy to a tree with a sign taped to a card table saying ” Did anyone lose a puppy?”.
I looked at the pup and we made eye contact and she jumped and wagged her tail. I didn’t stop but went home and asked my wife if she had seen the pup. She had and said something like “cute dog”. over the next couple of days we made excuses to go to town which took us past where the puppy was waiting for us.
It was close to Luann’s birthday and I asked her what she wanted, she said that puppy would be a great gift. Well, we went to the house and asked if anyone had claimed her and if not could we give her a home. I held her on the short trip home and all she wanted to do was hide behind me while Luann drove the 1 mile or so.
There were the normal “introduction challenges” with our other dogs, both males. Toby is a lab, chow shepherd mix and Beanie was a chihuahua. the next major event was , you guessed it, Toby thought Lexy would make a good Mom. One day near the end of her pregnancy she lumbered upstairs to our bedroom and somehow got on the bed with us and layed down. We were just loving on her and Luann started counting the “feeding stations” and she had 10. Luann took her face in her hands and looked her in the eyes and said, “you can only feed 10 puppys so don’t you have any more that”. On Dec. 16, 1999, Lexi gave us 10 beautiful and health puppys. We had no trouble finding good homes for 9 of them. One we dicided to keep, Sid. When people would come to look at the pups we would send Sid, a white Lab, upstairs with our youngest daughter so no one else would see him. Sid could be a whole other story, maybe later.
over the course of the next several years we lost Beanie and added Gus and Sassy, that made our family 5 “kids”.
I could probably write many pages about their antics and about their personallities but I’ll conclude for now.
In July we had just finished staining the deck and as the dogs were rushing out the patio doors Lexy slipped and her front legs went East and West. She started to limp and after a few weeks it hadn’t got better so we took her to see the Vet. He said she had a pulled muscle in her chest and gave us some pain pills and said it should heal in several weeks, just try to keep her quiet and things should be fine in 8 – 10 weeks.
Over the next 3 months there was no improvement, in fact her condition got worse, we thought she just kept reinjuring it. We took her to another Vet for a second opinion and after x-rays the Vet told us she had bone cancer. That was about 2 1/2 weeks ago and she went down hill real fast. Since that terrible day there have been buckets of tears and hours spent just hugging and kissing her, knowing what we would have to do. She spent her last weeks on narcotics and us trying to keep her as comfortable as possible.
The Vet said she would tell us when it was time. Well, last Tuesday she started to become winded when she hobbled in from the back yard and it was taking more and more medicine to ease the pain. Through tear and alot of hugs and kisses to her and from her we made the appointment for yesterday after Luann got home from work.
In May of 1999, God gave Lexy to us, but we had to decide to go get her. He gave her to us to love and care for until yesterday when once again it was our decision to give her back. We will all miss her.
God has her now to enjoy and she is no longer in pain.

Goodbye Sweetheart,
Brad Luann, Toby, Sid, Gus and Sassy from IN