My tragic loss - Page 3

This is just awful. My heart goes out to you!

I am so sorry for your loss

Karmen, I do not know you or your dogs but have read about them on email lists for years it seems.  Your tribute to Dante brought tears to my eyes as it was obvious you two had such a wonderful relationship.  I am so sorry to hear about Echo :(  I cannot even imagine what you are going through.  I know your heart is breaking again :(  I am so sorry to read this...

Valerie

Thank you all for your kind words and condolances.  It means a lot to me.  Losing her is so painful and I just can't grasp it.  She was a free spirit. I have never owned a dog that was more determined to get out.  I never thought she would dig and move concrete blocks to get to her freedom.  Even though she was only here for ten months she has impacted my life forever...

she looks just like her very special father, with the same happy expression and same long tongue too.

molly

LOL Molly that made me smile because Dante had a HUGE tongue and past that on to his kids.  I have always thought of Eagle and Dante as some kindred spirits.  I have always felt like they were linked.   Echo was going to be something special I could feel it.  It just breaks my heart as I feel I have let her down....

Karmen

Karmen, YOU did everything you could to prevent this from happening.  I don't know that I would have put  concrete blocks or pavers down, and if I had thought of that, would have assumed as you did that it would have kept her in.  She was determined to get out.  If she couldn't get through the pavers, then she would have climbed, or somehow chewed out.  Or even figured out how to get the latch open.  I had a dog that would stick his tongue (related to Dante?  long tongue too....) through the fencing and unsnap any snap no matter how it was put on, that snaped the latch shut.  Then he would open the latch, even if it was on the outside of the kennel.  I had to padlock his kennel if I wasn't around to make sure he was staying in.  He wasn't a digger or a climber - but boy could he still get out of kennel fencing.  And crates - forget it. 

Some things are heartbreaking and even more so when you blame yourself.  It was just bad timing and puppy exhuberance, the car came at just the wrong time - this could have happened when you were standing right in the yard.  Your dogs are the luckiest dogs I know - just looked at  Dante's tribute video again and was in complete awe at the relationship he had with you - and sobbing again too.  Yes, I see myself and Eagle when I watch that video, feel so lucky to have him - really they don't live long enough even if they make it to 12 or 14 - 10 months or 9 years is still only a little time with them, not long enough.  Eagle is 9 years old now and I'm scared to death to lose him.  I don't know how you survived it and maybe I'll have to talk with you about that sometime when this terrible thing that happened to another one of your babies has gotten easier to think about.  I can't even think about it and my dog is still with me.

molly

I'm so sorry Karmen.  I got all choked up reading your post.  You must be completely beside youself.

4 pack and yellowrose how are you two doing?

We just lost our 17, yes 17 year old Dobie mix earlier in the week.  We can take comfort in the fact that she had a very good very long life.

I'm sure that she will be showing your Echo the ropes just over the Rainbow Bridge, well when she's not chasing butterflies or airplanes.  :)

Karmen,

I am fairly new to this board list, but not new to the special devotion and dedication that we have to our companions and friends.  My heart felt sympathies go out to you.  I have often thought about what I would do if something were to happen to my best friend, and it is not something I can even begin to imagine, my girl is truey my best friend and companion.  So I can not say "I know how you feel"  I can only say, she was lucky to have such a caring human as a partner in her short life.

~ Kari

Karmen:

When I turned on my comp and got to the site, I really didnt want to cry any more....I hardly could see the screen and its a good thing I type by feel,,,,I had an escape artist , Demi, who left to go to the bridge with her Mom and Dad and all her brothers and sisters....about three Months ago. She hung one day ,when we lived ON THE gulf coast, for 8 hours at the top of the kennels, cyclone with a built roof above her, that my husband had built only leaving 8  inches of 10 above so she couldnt climb out...reinforced the cyclone with metal bars, and locks on gates, but she got her head out and part of one shoulder, and got stuck...The neighbors finally called us at work, owned our own business and I went flying home....couldnt believe my eyes...and she had screamed all day....I had to get a ladder and call a man to help me,,,couldnt lift her, as she was fighting by this time....after we got her down,,she was sore for a week and then back to old tricks...for all these years to May of this year, 14 years she had to me in a magnum kennel or a wire gauge 7 kennel in the nursery with music and a/c and not know I was outside ,and couldnt hear me,,,,or tear up time   she demolished more kennels and doors , just parted the rods, wire and alll, and here she was....But of course , in a fenced acreage...she never got out of property,,just couldnt keep her in any kennel...she broke her canines one day, when I was demoing a dog , for a couple and got them hung or caught on the door of the 7 gage midwest old kennel....no one knew what to do, she was screaming,,,and I ran and got bolt cutters , as she had both hung in the wire....and the man couldnt figure out what to do either...By the time I got back to the kennel , her teeth broke......   What we do thru to keep them ......she died of old age, just shut down and I had to carry her in....Her dad was Austin, the one I lost last week....

I like you, just cant handle the minutes of the final goodbye...I have my vet come out to my truck and he takes care of the final goodbye,  as he loves my kids too....hes a great vet....I bring them home and have someone here ready to bury them on my place.....

I sit on the porch and drink my coffee or eat supper or just watch the sun go down and think of all the german shepherd friends they have met on the bridge, and what they are doing,,,and then I get up and go play with the baby pups,,,and the lick my tears away.....My Rex was in here, today when I wrote to 4-pack and he kept nudging my hand on the pc.....like he knew what I was doing...he could see the tears and hear my sobs....No one knows that all these kids are our motivation for some days, in our lives, of just keeping on...