April 1988 —— March 19 2000
Cocker Spaniel
Once upon a time nearly 12 years ago my daughter wanted a
puppy as we had always lived in town without fenced yards and at present we
had purchased 4 acres and built a new home.
A fellow employee had previously had litters of Cocker Spaniels and having one
as a child myself I contacted him to see if they were expecting any soon.
Quite to my surprise they were. A couple of weeks later he announced
they had babies. I wanted a female and there was one black one.
Mike ask if I wanted to come see her to see if I wanted her and I said no need,
I would take her. 4 weeks later he arrived at work with this precious little girl
in a small shoe box. She was a joy from the day she arrived in our arms.
We fed her by hand at first as she was so tiny.
She soon learned how to do tricks and seem to know exactly what we
were saying to her. As time passed on my daughter grew up went off to college
and Brandy became my only child left at home.
She was so smart so special and had the most unconditional love of any living thing
I have ever known. She was always there when I was happy and would lay on my
lap if I were sad and look at me as if to say “Things will be OK mom”.
In later years when she was about 5 I went through a divorce and then I really
counted on her for the bad times and she was always there for me.
I spoke to her as if she was a real person she always responded she
slept on the other side of the bed at night she knew when it was time to go for a
ride in the car and was always excited to go!
She would let you know in her own special way anything that she wanted.
When I would be working in the yard she would come up and snuggle her
head under my arm as if to say,”Hey I want you to stop and love me”.
I always would and then she would dart off to play only to return in about
10 minutes or so for some more affection.
She would have been 12 in a couple of months and seemed to be a vision
of health. I had just taken her to the vet for her annual shots and everything
seemed to be OK. He said she had a slight heart murmur but was nothing
unusual for a dog her age and we would watch her and if it got worse we
would address it then. On Sunday evening she was fine at 7 PM and by 10 PM
she began to pant slowly. I called the vet and he said to give her an
aspirin to see if that would help calm her.
By 6:30 AM I called again to say there was no change.
He said to bring her in. I started on the way to his office and all of the
sudden she looked up at me raised her paw and had a look as if to say
” This is my good-bye momma” and she was gone (heart aneurysm).
My heart was and still is broken. I miss her so much and even
though I know she is in heaven it doesn’t remove the pain in my heart.
I remember all the good times and all the fun we had all the times she was there
for me and I for her! My daughter called 2 days after Brandy left us and
was crying and said she had not slept much the night Brandy passed away
and the next night had a dream! She said she saw Brandy and it was in a
bright place and there were flowers of beautiful colors and Brandy was
chasing “butterflies”. If all we know of heaven if true I believe my
beautiful little girl is in heaven and will play and have a safe and good
life until I join her one day. She was truly my angel from heaven and
has returned from whence she came. It doesn’t make it any easier at present
as the pain of losing her is still very much a part of every day of my life.
It’s just really hard to say good-bye my love
good-bye.
Linda
| Brandy |