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Chester

We bought our Lab in 1993.
Our son, who had been allergic to dogs, was pining for a dog and I took him to Bethesda Naval Hosp. to have him retested. He tested “only slightly allergic”. Hoping that this was the case, we had been scouring the papers for puppies. We found an ad 2 hrs away. We drove to Shenandoah Valley and got our Chester.

A beautiful white (yellow) Lab. He was our happiness through some tough times. At age 9, he developed a tumor on his earflap. We watched it grow. Had it removed, for it to return. It was diagnosed as a cancer and we had it removed again. Within 2 mos it grew back to tennisball size. He was shaking his head during the day and panting at night and the only thing that was recommended, more or less, was to have an “earflapectomy”. To go through this with a 12 yr old dog was too much. We decided to have him put down. We took him to the vet. The vet was delayed and we sat for 20 minutes in the treatment room and waited. The longest 20 mins in my life. My husband and I were on the floor with Chester as his life left him. We were devasted and cried all the way home. This was on a Friday; Sunday we got a new dog. A wild and crazy Labradoodle that we named Samuel Barclay Beckett. He is 3 now, but every day I miss my Chester. He was such a perfect dog. It’s not about replacing Chester with another dog; it’s because Chester was such a wonderful dog that gave us so much joy and fulfillment. So we feel that we honored his memory by getting a new dog before we went into some deep and serious mourning over Chester.

I have heard you talk about your Sprite on many shows, and I have cried every time. I am crying now.

Louise from MD