"Once someone has had the good fortune to share a true love affair with a Golden Retriever, one's life and one's outlook are never quite the same again. A warm afterglow remains that lasts a lifetime."
- Betty White, from Arthur Vanderbilt's book, Golden Days.

 

Memorials:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF TRAGER  4 March 2009

 

We lost Trager on March 4.  Trager was the biggest golden that most people had ever seen.  He sometimes looked like a cross between a golden and a pony.  Despite his size, he never hesitated to jump in a lap or on a bed.  He had some early hip surgery that gave him a goofy gait.  It never stopped him from running to greet everyone he knew.  Everybody was his friend, every kid was his to love.

 

His loves were his family, his couch, his bowl and rawhide bones.  He had a short life but it was filled with lots of loving and petting, trips to the cabin and the dog park, romps and many dispatched stuffed animals and pillows.  A good dog to the end, he didn’t complain even though he was sick and his shoulder hurt.  He was content to lie down, wrap his family’s arms around him and dream pleasant dreams

-John, Michelle, Katherine and Lena Tiemessen

 

 

IN LOVING MEMORY OF:

PENNY   23 January 2009

Dear All, We lost an important member of our family last week.  Penny, our beloved Golden passed into heaven where she is healthy and happy once again.
This is the note that Steve sent out after Penny was gone.
I was on the road to Miami when it happened.  Just got home yesterday.  Am trying to cope with the loss.
Copper is mourning.  We got Penny's ashes back today and she will continue to travel with us.  I don't know why this happened when I was gone, but I like to think she knew how much I wanted to be there with her and Steve and how very much I loved her.
Kim

  This is to all our friends and acquaintances who know how important our furry kids are to us, even if some may not really understand,   We're so sad.   On Friday, January 23rd, only one day after Kim had left for her long-planned family cruise, to our utter shock, our dear Canine-American girl, Penny, had to be euthanized.    After she had been going off her food, and being generally listless, Penny was diagnosed a couple weeks ago with anemia. A week later, after a more complete blood test, the diagnosis turned more upsetting. It wasn't just from maybe eating the wrong food, or not getting the proper variety in her diet. Adding iron pills wouldn't help. It turned out that she actually had Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia, IMHA, a disease that can take up to 80% of the sufferers.    She started to rebound for about six days after starting Prednisone, Doxycycline, and Lixotinic. Thursday, however, she started to get the symptoms back...But worse. She already had a follow-up vet appointment for Friday. Because she was panting so hard, and had been losing blood cells fast, at that visit, I was ready to get her a blood transfusion, hoping it'd relieve her panting, and give her some strength back.   The vet did the required blood testing, but said her protein levels were lower than they had been, previously. Friday's test showed they had declined along with her red blood cell count. It did reveal that her body was doing what it could to produce the extra blood cells to replace the ones it had been attacking. The protein level, however, prompted the vet to get X-Rays. She, (and even I,) saw that her lungs were being obstructed by a fuzzy gray mass that could have been a bleed. That is why she was panting so hard. (Though she was already losing plenty of blood cells, the protein level made the vet think "bleed," or cancer.) On top of the lung finding, the X-Rays also disclosed an enlarged kidney, with yet another fuzzy gray mass surrounding it. With that, there was no mistaking cancer. Whether one was a bleed or not, between the two masses, survival was not in the offing.   We were offered a chance for an immediate appointment at Alabama's Auburn University's veterinary hospital, if we decided to try to find out just what the masses were. But the vet wasn't optimistic that it was anything but cancer.   We had to make a decision. I got Kim on the phone, and she heard the diagnosis and prognosis from the vet. Then we talked and decided to give Penny rest. The vet and her staff were so kind to me. She gave me all the time I needed to be with Penny. So I took her out to see Copper, who was waiting as patiently as she could in the truck, and to, hopefully, let her share one last moment of love with Copper.    While I hated that I had to be there, (this is the third sad such event we've had to cope with,) I feel even worse for Kim, knowing how much she wanted to be there to express her emotions to Penny in her last moments with us. Kim had to be satisfied to know that I let Penny know her mom loved her so much, and will also be missing her until we join her across the Rainbow Bridge. http://www.indigo.org/rainbowbridge_ver2.html    At 5PM, CT, on Friday, Penny shut her eyes, shed her pain, and went over the bridge.   After telling them about the casts we received of Murphy Brown's and Mackenzie's, (our late two Golden Girls,) paws, the vet found that they had clay, and would make a print of her paw, with her name and her dates in it. I clipped some hair for Kim to put into a locket. We'll get her ashes to spread across the country she helped us discover these past almost five years.   I'm attaching a photo of her, taken as she romped in the stream that ran through Colorado Springs' Bear Creek Dog Park this past June. We shall remember her, just as that photo depicts, during the many times of happiness she, and we had during our travels.   So far, Copper's doing fairly well. She's getting pretty blind from cataracts, and Kim says she's going deaf. (But I'm half deaf, so I can't tell, and wouldn't criticize her.) I don't think the fact that Penny won't be home any more has hit Copper fully, yet. She goes to the door and seems to be waiting for something. I don't know if it's from the gentle push she used to get from Penny to, "Just go out, already!" or if it's in hopes of seeing that Penny was already outside, waiting for her before they'd take us on whatever new adventure they had in mind. I suspect a few more days will pass before she realizes that Penny's not just "shopping," or staying at the vet as Copper, herself, had done on a few occasions. And once Kim gets home on February 3rd, I'm sure Copper will understand for certain that Penny's no longer coming home. That will be so sad to witness. I am hoping it doesn't affect her like Mackenzie's passing hit Murphy Brown. It took a little over a month before Murphy followed Mackenzie, and she was obviously mourning deeply during that time.   We had been granted Copper, from Golden Retriever Rescue of Fairbanks, (http://grrf.org/,) a while before we retired and hit the road to travel the lower 48. Then, shortly before we left, the GRRF foster family of Penny's, who just didn't have enough time to give Penny all the attention she craved, and who knew that two Goldens are even easier to take care of than one, let us take Penny, too. Almost instantaneously, Copper and Penny became glued at the hips. They teamed up to give us so many gleeful times. They worked us, together, as well, to get the things they desired when they desired them. Penny was always the "Good Dog," when Copper, (as she was prone to do,) would get into mischief. Whenever Copper would get into something while we went out for a short period of time, as soon as we got home, Penny would run up to us and tell us she didn't do it, and had no part in it.   Penny craved human attention. When she was out and about where people were, she would literally go up to each and every human and press her head against their legs and await a scritch. While, of course, she often left many of those gorgeous long golden hairs on those legs, she left the recipient of her attention with a warm feeling for Penny, in particular, and Goldens, in general. She made a wonderful "Ambassador of Goldens."   Here's to Penny Gyuricsko March  19, 1999 -- January 23, 2009!   Thanks for letting me share this sad event. It helps to get it all out.   Steve

 

 

DOZER  Spring 2008

Dozer has been found

deceased and hit by a car

in Delta.

Thank you to all that helped

Dozer will be dearly missed.

2yr old, neutered male,

purebred yellow Labrador Ret.

 

ROSE I'M ADOPTED!! (Rose was tragically hit by a car  and killed.  Our hearts and sympathy go out her new family for their tragic loss)

 

ZEUS 2 SAD NEWS- Zeus passed away at 13 1/2yr of age 6/22/07 he was adored by his fosterparents and was part of their family We will all miss him 13 yr old Black Lab cross Very sweet and wonderful dog!! Our sweet old boy has quite a few followers!

 

SECRET

June 2006 - 28 Dec 2006

October 3, 2003 to November 17, 2004

Luke Sky Watcher

 

March 7, 2005

                                   

DORA  11/13/04-3/7/05 Dora fought a good good fight but a terrible strain of parvo took her young life.  She received the very best Veterinary care and around the clock nursing care but she passed away.  We are deeply sadened and will remember her lively spirit always.

October 14, 2004:

SAMANTHA

 

October 4, 2004:

Calvin Jarvis

9/6/1994  - 3/14/2004

 

June 10, 2004 :

43 days after her sister - again, Steve said it best:

"Wednesday, Murphy Brown Gyuricsko let us know that it was her time to join her partner McKenzie at the Rainbow Bridge, and romp a while as they wait for Kim and me to join them.

I can see her, now. Loudly vocalizing her profuse greetings, and mouthing the arms of the friends who approach, sweeping aside all of their troubles with her ever-wagging tail.

She could have succumbed to the pining that not only she was doing for her partner. We watched her from the day her partner left us, worried that she wouldn't be able to cope with that loss. Any sign of a problem got us even more engaged. We tried to alleviate the inflammation the cancer that was growing in her belly was causing, thinking that'd do it. Well, it didn't. The cancer was just too much for her.

We turned to the people who have been at our side from the first time we met the five week old pup that was to become the very heart of our family. As always, the great people at Aurora Animal Clinic helped us through this most compassionate of deeds for one of the dearest Canine-American kids on the planet.

Murphy thanks all those people who entered her happy life. This person thanks her for all the happiness she bestowed upon me.

She will be sorely missed. And our house is more than empty, right now. But her life will be remembered, and those memories will forever remind us that we did attempt to do as much good for her as she has done for all who knew her."

 

                    

                                         Murphy Brown Gyuricsko
                                                 9/8/92 -- 6/9/04

4./27/04 MacKenzie Gyuricsko.