A dog that will never be forgotten.
Once upon a time, there was a dog named "Charlie".
Charlie was a dog that I had gotten to be a part of my breeding program, however, that never happened. Charlie was a female AKC Golden Retriever with amazing bloodlines, but her heat cycles were always weird, and most of the time, non existant.
If you get a puppy for a breeding program, considering the time that it takes for them to mature into an adult, sometimes you have them for quite a while, before you realize, that they won't work for you breeding program. In the meantime, you are putting a lot of time, love, money, training, etc., and hoping for the best.
Well... I bought my first Golden Retriever when I was pregnant with my youngest daughter, 32 yrs ago. She has grown up helping me with the dogs, and has a always had a true passion and love for those dogs. The dogs that were SUPPOSED to be "mine", ended up being more "hers", because she just happened to be a dog hog. Lol! Every time I turned around, she was taking off somewhere with them. Well, for the most part, I didn't mind, because I always felt more at ease when the dogs were with her, and I knew that the dogs would have a lot of fun in the process. Then came Charlie. Charlie was a special one.
Charlie was there with my daughter through her teenage and early adult years. My daughter took her pretty much everywhere. It seemed most of the people in town had met Charlie. Even some business establishments allowed Charlie to come in, and they were prepared with treats, for when she came to visit. The dog seemed to be nearly another appendage to my daughter. Charlie was there with my daughter through many major life events, some happy, some sad. When my daughter started to work at the hospital, she even took her there, to put her through the pet assisted therapy program. Charlie passed with flying colors.
Charlie did so well, that the trainer asked her where she got the dog, and told her that she had never seen such a nice one as that. The trainer tried to buy the dog from my daughter. There was no way that girl was going to sell that dog. So, the trainer asked where she got it. My daughter told her that it belonged to her mom (me), and that I raised Goldens. The trainer then looked a little surprised and asked who her mom was. My daughter told the trainer my name. The trainers eyes got big and she said "Ooohhhh!!! So THAT'S why you have such a nice dog!!!" The trainer had known me for years and promptly called me to see if I had another one like Charlie. I the time, I didn't. Well, Charlie's photo even ended up on a great big billboard in town, because of her achievements. I was so proud of her and my daughter!
Charlie was around to see my daughter's first child be born. She took right to that baby and was very protective of her. By then, Charlie was getting older. She started acting like she wasn't feeling very well, so I took her to the vet. That was a really bad day. The vet told me she was very ill, and only had 2 months to live, tops. That was the most horrible news. I had to drive half an hour home, bawling like a baby the whole way. Then I parked in a parking lot and sat there for a while, to try to pull myself together, before I went home to break the news to my daughter. That was the most horrible thing, to have to tell my daughter that. I finally sort of pulled myself together and walked in to tell her the news. She knew by the look on my face, that I had bad news. I told her, and then we both bawled. There is just no way, to make that news any less awful.
At that time, I had a litter of Golden's. There was one special puppy in that litter, that really stood out from the rest. I just looked at my daughter, while we were both crying, and I went down and grabbed that puppy and brought it upstairs. I told my daughter, this pup will never replace Charlie, but she is going to be an awesome pup, and she just might end up being just as good as Charlie, and I gave her the pup. She liked the pup, but was heart broken about Charlie. I put a TON of money into Charlie, to keep her alive for as long as we could. My daughter made a bucket list for Charlie. She had a whole bunch of Charlies favorite things that she wanted to do with that dog just one more time. The vet said 2 months. We got that dog to live 8 more months. They were able to complete everything on that bucket list and it gave my daughter some time, to sort of prepare herself for Charlie's passing. It also gave the new puppy, some time to be trained by one of the best dogs ever. Charlie took the new pup under her wings, and showed her the ropes before we had to say Good bye to Charlie. We named the new pup "Montana", "Mo mo" for short. Some day, I will take some time to tell you all about Montana. She has made quite an impact on our lives as well, but for now, I must close.
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