My-Lu's Tinkerbell The Fairy, CGC

"Tinkerbell"

November 5, 1997 - August 24, 2008

How do miracles happen? I don't really know, but let me share with you the small miracle that came into my life and changed it forever. Tinker chose to come live with me over many other families that inquired about her. She was truly my heart dog from day one and influenced my life in ways that have changed me forever. Even though she has no "titles", Tink taught me agility, obedience, herding, tracking, animal therapy and in general how to be a better person. She stood by my side through illness, injury and hardship. She reminded me that I needed to keep trying to make my dreams come true. I beamed because she was a part of my life. I miss her every day and am thankful to have had the honor to have been her human.

Tinker taught me how to live, not just exist, and The Dance by Oriah is dedicated to her.

If love could have saved her, she would have lived forever.

Angela Myracle

~

The Dance

I have sent you my invitation,
the note inscribed on the palm of my hand by the fire of living.
Don't jump up and shout, "Yes, this is what I want! Let's do it!"
Just stand up quietly and dance with me.

Show me how you follow your deepest desires,
spiraling down into the ache within the ache,
and I will show you how I reach inward and open outward
to feel the kiss of the Mystery, sweet lips on my own, every day.

Don't tell me you want to hold the whole world in your heart.
Show me how you turn away from making another wrong
without abandoning yourself when you are hurt and afraid of being unloved.

Tell me a story of who you are,
and see who I am in the stories I live.
And together we will remember that each of us always has a choice.

Don't tell me how wonderful things will be... some day.
Show me you can risk being completely at peace,
truly okay with the way things are right now in this moment,
and again in the next and the next and the next...

I have heard enough warrior stories of heroic daring.
Tell me how you crumble when you hit the wall,
the place you cannot go beyond by the strength of your own will.
What carries you to the other side of that wall,
to the fragile beauty of your own humanness?

And after we have shown each other
how we have set and kept the clear, healthy boundaries
that help us live side by side with each other,
let us risk remembering that we never stop silently loving
those we once loved out loud.

Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance,
the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart.
And I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet
and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again.

Show me how you take care of business
without letting business determine who you are.
When the children are fed but still the voices within and around us
shout that soul's desires have too high a price,
let us remind each other that it is never about the money.

Show me how you offer to your people and the world
the stories and the songs
you want our children's children to remember.
And I will show you how I struggle not to change the world,
but to love it.

Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude,
knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging.
Dance with me in the silence and in the sound of small daily words,
holding neither against me at the end of the day.

And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest
intentions has died away on the wind,
dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale
of the breath that is breathing us all into being,
not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don't say, "Yes!"
Just take my hand and dance with me.

(c) Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from the book "The Dance", Harper San Francisco, 2001

"My Sweet Boy"

Good bye, my sweet boy,
til we meet again

If Love would have saved you
I would have loved you more.

I miss you every day.

Your Mom & Best Friend,
Barbara

2001 - 2007

Kandee was a challenge from the day she arrived at our house at 10 weeks of age.  Although she appeared to have made the flight okay, the stress got to her and she spent the first night in Texas at the vet's with an IV due to bloody diarrhea.  The next morning they said she was barking and she ate well.  That was the story of her life - mouthy and food-driven.  She had many moments like that in her life - getting her head stuck between the gate and the fence post, emergency surgery to remove a tumor from her bladder the day before I left for a 3-day meeting I could not get out of, chronic ear infections, chronic bladder infections, etc. 

But she was a barrel of fun and made me laugh every day of her life.  When she was a puppy, in the car but not yet in her crate, she would go from the front of the van to the back.  Not on the floor like a normal dog.  Nope.  She would walk on the window ledges. 

She warted my male (Crak) no end but he never killed her.  I don't know what held him back but he managed to be a gentleman.  My other female (Gilli) was a gentle soul and she and Kandee were best pals.  When she died, Kandee was lost for months with nobody to play with and nobody to go outside with her.  This was my first experience with dog depression. 

She and I did more together than any other dog I ever had - primarily because there were more sports available.  She was a good agility dog.  Not too fast but very steady and a consistent first place dog because of that steadiness.  She definitely had her own opinion as to where I was supposed to be on any given day.  One day she wouldn't mind if I was a bit close; another day she'd 'yell' at me for being too close.  Some days I would talk her through the weaves and it was okay.  Other days, she'd stop and glare at me until I shut up - then she would continue through the weaves.  She certainly kept me on my toes wondering what I was supposed to do.

She was 16 years and 4 months when she had a stroke and a grand mal seizure.  Time to send my girl to the Bridge to be with her friends.  I'll miss her silliness and her contrariness, her look that said 'read my mind, please', the complete and total obsession with food, her lovely movement, her gorgeous headpiece, stunning dark eyes, and all the rest of her, too.  She was my pal and there's a huge empty place in our house and my heart right now.

Loved by Ken and Pat Knepley

In Loving Memory

Lady Liberty
"Libby"

July 4, 1997 - October 9, 2009

Remember Me

Remember me when flowers bloom
Early in the spring
Remember me on sunny days
In the fun that summer brings
Remember me in the fall
As you walk through the leaves of gold
And in the wintertime
Remember me in the stories that are told
But most of all remember
Each day - right from the start
I will be forever near
For I live within your heart

~Author Unknown~

When the kids were asleep and the neighborhood rolled up its sidewalks for the night I would take her outside on the front lawn to train her how to bark, sit, heel, stop, come, but mostly to fetch her toys and play.  Those nightly romps lasted as long as it took us to realize just how fast such a little thing could run.  She slipped her collar one day to run after a tow truck (she was sensitive to diesel engines) almost getting run over since the truck wouldn't stop.  A neighbor scooped up my daughter in her car to get her back... that little ball of fur, we were told, made it to the corner store and was on her way back when they caught up with her.  Little did I know just how easy she would be to train, practically training herself.  We found that out the hard way too.  I had been mowing the lawn in the back yard, Libby got tired of chasing the lawn mower and laid down under the dogwood tree.  One of the kids left the gate open while I mowed and Libby wandered out of the back yard.  Soon we had the whole neighborhood scouring the development and woods for Libby.  She never answered our calls.  After 3 hours of looking and calling (I became hoarse) I headed home in defeat.  When I climbed up the front porch there was Libby lying under the patio table calm as could be with a look on her face that screamed innocence.  She had been there the whole time we were looking and never once barked.  It was then I realized she had trained herself to not go off the porch once on it.  She also learned never to leave the backyard even with the gate open without hearing the commands come or lets go.

She was such a well behaved dog!!  In all the years we owned her she never jumped up on the furniture (except during a wicked T& L storm, thus landing on my abdomen knocking the breath out of me), sat around the table and begged, ate off the floor, messed on the floor or carpet unless sick, or chase the wildlife that would wander in our yard from the woods (she believed in my house is your house.)  She was a playful pup and dog!!  She would fetch her favorite toys, could catch a Frisbee or football without breaking stride, hit a ball using her nose into a tall garbage bucket or hit it back to you.  She loved to go running and walking and could outlast even the most committed joggers in the neighborhood. 

She was so full of energy!!  Everyone who met her was amazed at how she could run from one end of the porch to the other end without sliding off, stop in mid stride and spin on a dime without losing her balance.  Libby loved the outside!!  Once she was out she did not like coming back into the house unless it was storming out!!!  She especially loved the snow and making doggy angels in it.  I would shovel tunnel mazes all over the back yard for her, she loved exploring and playing in them.  While we shoveled she would lie in the snow watching us, most of the time we'd have to go brush the snow off her or she'd let herself get buried alive.

I liked to think she loved my singing and was singing with me, but my kids would tell me she was trying to tell me to stop.  She loved to dance with you and would follow your feet movements.

If she didn't like someone she would run and hide behind my legs just like a young child would.  She loved the kids in the neighborhood, probably cause they loved to take her for walks.

Unfortunately, Libby developed a cancerous tumor.  One day I brushed her with no signs of a lump, 3 days later she had a lump the size of a baseball on her thigh!!  Thank God for the president's rebate check!!  The tumor was surgically removed with the sad news it would come back, how fast or soon was not known.  Much to my dismay, her cancer was not treatable with chemo or radiation.

We had 3 more blessed years with Libby after her surgery.  During that time she was spoiled, pampered and loved even more than we already did since she came to live with us.  Unfortunately, Libby's hips gave on her and due to her age and the cancer the vet wouldn't operate to fix them.  The hardest thing to do and live with was having to put her to her final rest.

Rest well my beloved Libby for our paths will surely cross again someday.

Loved and remembered by
Cindy Flagg