So our family has always been dog lovers, especially of the Labrador breed. We got our first yellow lab Tara in Illinois in 1997. Boy we didn’t know what we were getting into. Tara taught us so much about being dog owners, especially how to have unending patience but most of all what unconditional love is. Tara moved with of to CA in 2002 and was not so happy when I brought home our new choc. lab puppy Millie. By this time we thought we had gotten the hang of being dog owners and were realizing that they weren’t just dogs they were our kids. In 2006 one of my boys called me from the local Pet-smart and begged me to come down and see the adorable Rottie puppy that was there for an adoption. Since I said I never wanted a boy dog I knew I was safe in just taking a look. NOPE…We walked out with 3 month old Toby who had been tied up in his previous owners yard 24 hour a day before a neighbor rescued him. Millie was gorgeous and had such a pleasant demeanor that people wanted us to breed her. So in 2007 we did and had 9 beautiful pups. By the end of the 8 weeks caring for them I realized I could never do this again because I fell in love with each pup like they were my own. I made sure that all of the puppies were adopted locally. My oldest son took one of the females, Lilly and she is the love of his life. My friends family took another of the females, Lacey and we kept Lola. Then in 2008 when Tara was 12 she woke up one morning blind. Tests at our vets office revealed that she had lymphoma of the liver and there was nothing they could do. Two months later we said goodbye to our sweet girl. I was not prepared for losing a member of our family. It was not like when a hamster or gold fish died. They were pets, but not Tara. I was literally grief stricken for months along with the other dogs and family members. That next year my husband said we need a puppy! I knew exactly that was the right thing to do and I knew I wanted a white English Labrador. I spent months finding the right breeder. We waited anxiously for her to be born and counted down the weeks and then days before we could pick her up. I drove 10 hours from Sacramento to San Diego to pick her up. She healed my heart immediately. From the day she entered our home she has brought us joy. We also like to call her our million dollar puppy because with in 3 months she destroyed a lap top computer, ate 2 cell phones, ate more shoes than I can count and has put holes in every piece of clothing I own. I was a diligent puppy mom and had her at the vets appointment for shots and the slightest little thing that I though was going wrong. Most times I left the vets office with my vet saying she is fine, calm down there is nothing wrong. Then in May of this year she limped for 3 days. A call to my vets office was the usual, ” she is probably just fine but we’re happy to take a look at her.” She was in at 8:30 am. One x ray led to another x ray that led to my vet asking if she could keep her and sedate her a little to do another test, which resulted in a phone call to me asking if she could call in a specialist, to me calling my husband in a panic (he was out of town 2 hours away), then my son said lets go to the vets office and just wait. We were there in an hour. When I walked in the waiting room there was my husband. So together we all met with my vet and the specialist. It was confirmed, Misty had Osteosarcoma and it is terminal. I didn’t really hear a word they said after that and just wondered why???? She is our healing angel. Why would God want to make us go through losing another puppy and in such a horrible way. In the 4 months we have been dealing with this everyone who knows Misty has shed buckets of tears. Although my son’s are grown everyone of them broke down like a baby when they heard that Misty wasn’t going to be with us long. Our million dollar girl has turned into our 2 million dollar girl and she is worth every penny of the $20,000 we have spent on her treatment so far. My husband and I won’t be retiring any time soon but I don’t know what I will do without Misty in my life anyway.
