stardancnminpin
Posted : 5/14/2007 10:41:37 PM
Thanks everyone. I know Mom has prayed that she would be able to go in her sleep here at home, but we are going to have to help her over the bridge. It is the only loving thing we can do for her, it is just so hard on Mom. Dixie has been Mom's shadow since we brought her home in January of 1992.
I was given a Cocker Spaniel in 1990 and she quickly became the family dog. She was stolen in the fall of 1991, and in our search for Cara, we went to the Beaumont Humane Society. Even though Beaumont is an hour away, we were praying and hoping that we would find her (which we did, the people that found her after she escaped from the guy that stole her returned her to us even after they took her to the vet and had her groomed - very sweet people). That day Mom saw Dixie and it was a magical connection for them. She looked at Mom, and you could just tell that she had claimed Mom for her own. Her owners had let her get pregnant, then dumped her at the shelter because they didn't want the puppies. She was about a year and a half old, and from the first moment we got her home, she has protected Mom from strangers (and even family members!) and snakes. Living in a rural area, people (men) have a tendency to have no regard for how uncomfortable a stranger makes a women feel home alone. Dixie wouldn't let them out of the car, and if they were stupid enough to get out and walk toward the house, they never set foot on the sidewalk. She never laid tooth one on anybody, but she made them think she would. We laugh about how my dad's sister would come over and be in the front yard talking to them with Dixie at their feet, but the moment she started for the back yard and Mom, she would get between my Aunt and Mom and not let her anywhere near her! She's kept Mom from stepping on snakes, and provided 15 years of love and laughter and care. She's goofy and silly, jumping about like a young puppy, but her body just won't let her do it more than once. She's a young girl in an old dog's body, and it is breaking my Mom's heart to have to let her go. I've seen a lot of pet/human connections in my life, experienced a few of my own, but the bond that formed that day in that shelter between Dixie and my Mom is one of the sweetest, most devoted heart connections I think I will ever see. I'll miss your thumpy butt and tail Miss Dixie.....(picture from last year, not the best, but I can't find any good ones on this computer).
