I found Kate at a local county Fair in 1992 she was 8wks old all covered with Cattle dung, she was born of working dogs, cattle herders, and was kept in the cattle barn. She was the only female out of the three puppies left. I told my husband I “had” to have her, so we brought her home to join the other two dogs in the household.
Mandy was getting old and I had never been without a dog. We just had Lizzy spayed so she was 6months old. Kate fit right in, she bonded first with Lizzy, then to us. Mandy ignored the two as much as she could. I had three herding dogs in one house, quite fun!!….Kate was an Aussie and Lizzy is a border collie, Mandy was a small sheltie mix. Kate had this little swing to her butt when she walked, I used to say she has a Suzanne Sugarbaker sashay, it almost bobbed.
She loved catching frisbee, and would drive you crazy bringing it back to throw for her, she would drop it and back up so you would throw it again. Smart was the only word I can think of when I think of Kate.
She loved raw vegetables, and would eat corn off the cob like a human. I miss her when I peel potatoes, she was always begging for a piece to drop. I have never known dog like her. She was fiercely protective of us, wary of strangers, she would put herself between the strangers and us, just in case! She even got along with the two cats I brought home one day, she didn’t “like” it but she tolerated them. I was never expecting to lose her the way we did.
She had bouts of diarrhea all her life, a very sensitive stomach, but this went on too long so we took her to the vet to be checked out. The vet did all the bloodwork only found that her thyroid was off, so prescribed pills…….she lost more weight and still the diarrhea, by this time she had gone from a healthy 67 pounds to 44 pounds…..too much for me, so off to the vet again, he x-rayed her this time, found a mass on her spleen, we agreed to surgery to remove it, I figured even at 11yrs she had a few more good ones left, she was a very healthy dog. Surgery went well much to the surprise of the vet, only after he removed the melon sized mass he could see more lesions on her liver, too many….we were told that she has about two months to live.
Instead of bringing her out of the anesthesia we opted to have her put down. I never got to say goodbye because I never thought that I would never see her again. I am feeling so sorry about it now. She will always be remembered as long as I live and I will run to the Rainbow Bridge to see her again.