Love at First Site

I fell in love with Frank the first time I saw him. I went to the shelter hoping to find a Border Collie. The dog that had been advertised was gone but there was this beautiful dog standing with his paws up on the pen. He looked so happy and so soft.

When I asked about him the shelter staff said Body had just been brought in by the children of his elderly owner. His owner had been walking Body and had a heart attack. He had not been cleared for adoption but would probably be available the next day. He was a one year old pure bred golder retriever.

The next morning I drug my husband, three year old and infant back to the shelter,and Body, or Frank as we renamed him, came home with us and became part of our family.

Since he was still a puppy, Frank was very rambunctious. He got into everything, stole whatever he could and fell in love with the farm cats. It was amazing to see how rough and how gentle he was with the cats. One minute he would be carrying the cats around by the head and the next licking and cleaning them as if they were his puppies. It always warmed my heart to walk into the garage and see him cuddling with one or more cats.

Goldens are known for their gentle nature with kids and Frank certainly carried this trait. We were his people as much as he was our dog. My daughter grew up tackling, hugging and trying to ride him. He was my son's escort to the road every morning to wait for the bus.

About eight months after Frank came to live with us he got sick. We went to a few different vets and not one could tell us what was wrong. Overnight, his joints quit working and he could hardly move. After multiple vet visits and many prescriptions, we put him on a high dose of prednisone. It seemed to work and he got about 50% of his spunk back.

Over the past three years he has had short relapses lasting a couple days but nothing serious. In fact, the last year he has been in such great spirits and very active. He and his cat, Steve seemed to be getting along great and he even was stealing anything and everything left around.

Until the last couple weeks. Steve ran away and Frank started going down hill. He relapsed this week and within days his systems started to shut down.

Frank died this morning and I am so sad. He was such a good dog and we were so lucky and so blessed that he was part of our family.