Our oversized yellow lab, Ed, was 10 years old.  He had had a great life in rural NJ running the deer and turkey and playing with my kids on sleighhills and hayfields.  Last year he slipped and tumbled down the stairs.  It seemed as if nothing was wrong at first, but over time, he lost the use of his hindquarters.  We coped as best we could but it just wasn’t working. He could not even pee without being held up.  Sadly our situation did not allow us to care for a paraplaegic pet, so we had to let him go with dignity.  When he was put down, I asked the vet to clip some of his long thick shoulder locks for us to hold in his memory.  I gave some to each of my three children.  The following Hanukah, my son (who is an avid fly-fisherman) gave me a shadow box with four beautifully tied trout flies carefully mounted inside.  He had made them from Ed’s hair (Lab hair is quite buoyant).  I was so deeply touched by what my son had done in Ed’s memory that I wept.  My wife insisted that he enter the flies in the NJ state fair.  He did, and the display  won 1st place and a special award for creativity.  The ribbons hang on Ed’s shadow box which hangs over the desk in my home office.  I know that he was very pleased and was grinning from floppy ear to floppy ear.

— Dave from Newton, NJ