On January 31, 2009, I met my second foster, Princess Lea, an adorable 7 year old female black and white parti-cocker who was rescued from a rural shelter in Berkeley County, West Virginia.
To my disbelief Princess Lea was filled with a lot of energy when I picked her up from an adoption show. Princess had very interesting features. Her head and her ears were black with one black spot located on her butt. The one thing that stuck out about her was that she still had a tail, unlike most cocker spaniels that have their tail docked.
At shows everyone thought she was cute, but didn’t seem very interested in her. At times Princess Lea would get a little snippy, which we worked on. At one show in Annapolis she tried so hard to get people to like her. You could tell she was a little depressed lying down on the floor with that sad look on her cute little face.
In May the rescue group was invited to an event in Bethesda, Maryland called “Strutt your Mutt” where Princess Lea got to participate in the kissing booth. Everyone who came by the rescue booth saw Princess Lea and thought she was pretty, taking pictures of her. She was a really big hit and brought in a lot of money.
In early August a family from West Virginia came to an adoption show in Columbia, Maryland to see a dog named Patches. However, Patches was too much for the kids to handle. Then the mother saw Princess Lea. I told her Princess Lea was allergic to wheat and was eating special food along with taking allergy medication.
The family had a long family discussion and decided to adopt her; however it was not meant to be because she ended up coming back to me that very same day. The family didn’t give Princess Lea time to adjust to her new home in Hedgesville, West Virginia. When the family got home the kids were excited about finally getting their dog that they wanted to play with Princess Lea. However she was tired from the drive and growled at the kids. That’s when the family made the decision to return her to the rescue.
Once Princess Lea came back to me her attitude changed especially towards children other dogs. At shows I would have to keep my distance from the other dogs. I would distract her with treats when whenever other dogs came in her vicinity. Sometimes I would keep Princess Lea in my lap; this seemed to keep her calm.
Then at the end of April of 2010 into May Princess Lea’s life began to slip away from me. She started coughing. I took to the vets and after giving her a thorough check up, the vets determined that she might have a mild case of kennel cough and put her on medication and sent her home.
Over that weekend she wasn’t getting any better so I took her back to the vets where they vet took x-rays and found that she had pneumonia. They quickly put her on fluids and medication. The vets told me that they would be forwarding her x-rays to a radiologist to get a better understanding about what was going on with Princess Lea.
Later that night the vets called to tell me that Princess Lea had mycotic pneumonia and they changed her medication. Sometime during the late hours of Monday, May 3rd Princess Lea died in her sleep. The very next morning around 8:30 am I got the painful news from the vets telling me that Princess Lea didn’t make it. This was very painful for me to hear, I loved Lea so much.
When I got to the vets to say goodbye to Princess Lea I was taken into a room where Princess Lea was laying lifeless on a towel on an examining table. As I approached her tears of my pain started to flow as I told Princess Lea how much I loved her and that I would forever miss her. I had Princess Lea cremated. Before I left that day I cut some of Princess Lea’s hair so that I could put into a baggie and attach to her favorite stuffed animal.
A week after Princess Lea passed away, her ashes were to have come but mysteriously her ashes were returned to me on my 45th birthday; I think this was God’s plan. Princess Lea’s ashes were placed in a dark brown wooden box in the shape small casket. Even know Princess Lea was never my dog. I’m happy she was a part of my life.

— Harriett from Germantown,  MD

On December 28, 2010 we lost one of our beloved chocolate labs, Hamilton.He was 13 1/2 years old. He fell one day going out the door and broke his leg in such a way that the vet could not fix it. We had to make the painful decision to put him to sleep that day. It was one of the hardest decisions we ever had to make and we cried for hours before, during and after. We had him cremated and have his ashes in a special spot at home and maybe some day we will spread them on our property on one of his favorite spots, but not just yet. We are not quite ready for that.
Hamilton had a buddy named Abigail, another chocolate lab, who is almost 11 years old now. She missed her buddy very much and was very lethargic and sad looking. We decided we would eventually get another dog, and had a few offers from people who wanted us to take their dog for them, (not labs) but it just didn’t feel right. We also put feelers out to our local SPCA where we had originally gotten Abigail, to let us know if and when they got a lab there, and lo and behold, they called us to tell us that they had a pure blooded chocolate lab puppy. They thought he was between 7 and 10 months old. We went to visit him and he was just beautiful and very energetic. He didn’t pay any attention to us at all, but we were pretty sure we would take him. We took Abigail into meet him and she didn’t exactly jump for joy, but also didn’t completely reject him, so we made the decision to adopt him.
This was one of the best decisions we could make. He is just absolutely the greatest. He is very smart and we only had to leave him in his crate for one night and since them he has only been in the crate for a hour or so when we left them at home for a couple of hours. He and Abigail travel with us every day in our work. We have jobs that allows us to each take one of the dogs with us during the day and have both of them with us at the office at night. (we own the business and building so we can have them with us). Riley (the name we gave him) and Abigail are inseparable now. Riley doesn’t like her out of his sight or his new parents either. We live in the country and have many acres and he is just in heaven when he can be outside and just run to his heart’s content and chase his frisbie. I have attached a picture of Riley and Abigail in the back seat of our SUV where they were taking a nap, and as you can see, he likes to be very close to her. Though we miss Hamilton daily, this little fellow is filling the gap he left when we had to put him to sleep. He even reminds us of Hamilton as he has many of his traits. We hope we have him many years and that we have Abigail for as many years as is possible, too.

— Linda from Jersey Shore, PA

My Mother always told us when we were growing up that pets did not belong in the house. I agreed with her completely. So when my roommate’s cat was following me around the apartment all I could think of was that cat hair was going to get on my clothes and why would anyone want to clean out a cat litter box? His name was Ludwig and he went by Ludie and I had to close my bedroom door to keep him out of my room and off of my bed!

A friend of mine told me that cats pick their caretakers but I was oblivious to this information at the time. As far as I was concerned Ludwig was stalking me. He waited outside my bedroom door for me to come out every morning and followed me around the apartment. When I would sit down he would climb into my lap, start purring and snuggle cozily into a deep sleep. He would post himself on furniture and as I would pass by, he would meow at me to stop and pet him and reach out with a paw to try and catch me. I couldn’t get rid of him. It was ridiculous.

Time past and there I was cleaning out a cat litter box and purchasing cat food from the grocery store when my room mate neglected to keep up. I cant even tell you how it happened but before I even realized it there was this white fur ball sleeping next to my pillow every night and purring very loudly. I moved out and got my own apartment and I asked my friend if I could have the cat but he said no.

After I moved into a new apartment I missed the cat believe it or not. But there was nothing I could do. At Christmas time I received a card from one of my sisters with a 100 dollar bill in it. There were specific instructions inside of the card that stated I was not to pay bills with the money but to use the dough for something extra that I wanted. I wasn’t needy for anything so I got this idea that I would send a note in the mail to my X roommate and ask him if he would sell Ludie the cat to me for 100 dollars.

When Ludie came out of the cardboard box in his new apartment he sat with perfect posture and just meowed at me to pet him. The first week he was there he woke me up at 3 a.m. to pet him. He was about 6 years old at the time. For the next twelve and a half years he slept next to my pillow every night purring us both to sleep.

When I would stay up too late at night he would sit in front of me with perfect posture and meow at me as if to ask “Isnt it time to go to sleep?” and I would answer him yes, yes, yes and off to bed I went with him following me and taking his spot next to my pillow to motor purr into sleep.

The cat became very ill with diabetes. He lost weight and looked wretched. I didn’t want to lose my best friend so I took him to the Vet. The Vet wanted me to give the cat insulin shots everyday. I pictured myself chasing this cat around my apartment and torturing the poor thing by jabbing him with a needle. That is not what happened though. What happened was I started giving the cat insulin shots twice a day and he started to look and act healthy again. When I would lose track of the time or get home late from work, Ludie would come up to me, sit in front of me with perfect posture and politely meow for his shot. We did that for six years. Cats don’t usually live more than two more years with diabetes so I was very lucky. He died rather peacefully at 18 ½ years old. I was sad to lose my best friend.

Although I dated and socialized quite a bit I never married. I suppose if I could have turned my beloved Ludwig into a marriage partner that such an angelic creature would have made quite a good spouse. Like kissing a frog to turn into a prince. But that is just a fairy tale. I don’t think it is sad that I never married. I think it would be sad if I didn’t find something to love with all of my heart. There is something much worse than a woman that never found her lover and that would be a woman that did not find something to love at all.

— Lynn from Mount Olive, IL

Friday the 22nd of April, we just put our beloved dog, Astra to sleep. 11 years ago, friends found her on the street. A 30 pound (underweight) chow mix whose mouth could not close (black tongue falling out), 6 teeth and scrappy. After not finding her owners, we took her in. Our vet said she was about 6 years old and she was already neutered. We already had a 1 year old black lab from a shelter, Cosmo. They two never got along as playmates but they would sleep together on beds in the house (we have beds everywhere!). Astra wasnt as needy as Cosmo the lab but she was always there, wagging her cute tail, lookking for food, going between our legs for comfort and purring when you massaged her head and neck. Over the last 5 years, she got cushings disease, became close to blind, mostly deaf, no teeth and other liver and stomach maladies. Yet she was a survivor, even when the cushings slowly made her lose the feelings in her back legs and had her lose control of bowel movements. She still had a love of life and food! Now at 17, she can’t get up by herself and can only walk short distances and then falls and has other issues. We had a vet come to our house last friday April 17th and put her to sleep. While doing this, we fed her her favorite treats, dog treats that look like real cookies. She was eating these as fast as she could until she fell asleep.

Cosmo the lab is 12 now and i don’t know how much time I have with him as he as bad arthritis and other issues but is okay for now. He is very needy and I always have to spend more time with him than I did with Astra. After Astra was put to sleep, it finally hit me that my steady, scrappy friend for all these years is gone. I thought that diapering, hand feeding, giving medicines, helping Astra up and all the care for her was a lot of work when I was doing it these last 3 years. But, now I know I was wrong. I miss it! I am really going to miss my 17 year old friend. She has taught me to be tough, lover life and be independent. Most of all , she has taught me more about the meaning of love.

— Ken from Chicago, IL

Today we lost our beloved little Shellie, an 11 year old Sheltie. Our little girl followed us from San Diego, to New York City, down to DC and back to the Bay Area. She was our baby before we had kids.
I also like to think of her as a tiny little American hero. We had moved to New York City in late August of 2001, when Shellie was just over a year old. Just a couple weeks later, Shellie was at my side in the West Village, watching the Twin Towers burn, then collapse. In the days at followed, I walked with her around Greenwich Village, and on many occasions, sullen New Yorkers stopped to pet her, and and have their spirits lifted by her cheerful, carefree gait and her beautiful black, white and tan fur.
We will miss her so much, but we’ll always remember her. God bless you, Shellie.

— Dan from Palo Alto, CA