~ Ailea Soley Remembered ~
Token - Tokey-Toke
Emerald's Stocks And Bonds (12 pts
1 major) x Ailea Moonstone
January 9, 2002 - November 16, 2008
Token hailed from the first litter Onyx whelped, and was a nice enough bitch to warrant taking care where she was sold, so that all the great things in her could be looked after.
Token was sold as a young puppy to Karen, D'Gio Shelties, in Illinois. While she was with Karen Token was appropriately loved and spoiled rotten, and was bred for a litter of puppies, producing for Karen a lovely sable-and-white bitch. Token returned to Ailea's Place in the early fall of 2004, where she quickly made herself right back at home, as though she had never left us in the first place! She quickly learned how best to rival her mother (Onyx) and great-great-great-grandmother (Rookie) for the top spot on the totem pole...
Though
Token was to have been an important link in the lineage which had become Ailea, it was decided all future
plans for Token come to a halt. We were patient with her, to be sure, but after
waiting sixteen months Token failed to come into season. To give her the best of
the best, which is all she has ever deserved, it was decided Token be spayed and
sold as a pet. Token's new home took her to sunny California, where she loved
agility and anything else she was asked to do.
I received the most shocking news on
Monday, November 17, 2008. It seems Token was quite suddenly chosen to join the
throngs at Rainbow Bridge. Not feeling well, and after seeing
the vet for a diagnosis of severe flu on Saturday, she returned home with
prescriptions and while resting Saturday night suffered a massive seizure and
died instantly in her owner's arms.
I know she was most loved and cherished in her home in California, and her passing has left a very large, painful void. My heart goes out to you, Charlotte, as you try to make sense of things. By anyone's measure, Token was a young sheltie with an entire life ahead of her, years and years in which to bounce and spin and play and bark and jump and jump and jump.
Token is greatly loved by many and will be sorely missed by everyone who knew her.
My final word about Token I must share is my deepest thanks and gratitude to Karen for being an AWESOME newcomer to this wonderful breed, for giving Token the unparalleled beginning she received, for being a GREAT friend, and believing and showing the rest of us even the greenest beginner can make the best dreams come true!
Thanks, too, to Angel Maria of Amatras Shetland Sheepdogs for caring for Token so well and so long as she was there, and for finding Token the most wonderful of homes, even though that Florida home you sold her to picked her up and took her all the way to the West coast!
And thanks, too, to you, Charlotte... for loving Token and giving her the best, greatest home I could have hoped for her, with all that energy to play out for you on the agility course! It would have been nice to meet Token just one more time, to see the awesome girl I am certain she became under your gentle hand and guidance.
If you, like many others have been, are curious about how Token came about her name, both her registered *and* her call name, perhaps you will enjoy reading "Remembering Soley", an essay in which the story of Token's name is told-
And today, the story of Token's name is bittersweet, indeed...
My most favorite picture of Token
And now we must close yet another chapter
in the book, one of the hardest things of all time to do. It is quite difficult
to believe Token now is gone, that she has joined her great-great-great
grandmother, Mama Rookie, as well as several of her great-great-great aunts and
uncles who have gone before her.
