Our sweet Yogi

They say bad news comes in threes. I only hope that this is it for awhile now, I cannot take the heartache.

My good friend Ann Marie (in NY) just found out that her young Golden Retriever has a brain tumor. Yogi is such a sweet boy and Ann Marie does not deserve this awful news. Ann Marie is the type of person that would do anything for her dogs and she always takes their well being first. She would always be the first person to pull her dogs out of a show if she felt it was not right for them; she always put them first and I always admired her for that. Why then does she have the devastation of twice losing her goldens as young dogs? Life is just not fair.

They are hoping to keep Yogi comfortable on medication for as long as he is happy. Ann Marie says he doesn't seem to be in any pain right now, Thank God for that. I think the ones in the most pain will be Ann Marie and Norman. I only pray that when the time comes that Ann Marie and Norman know they are doing the best thing for Yogi. He has had a great life.

I am so sad that I will probably never see Yogi again. I am glad that I saw him when I was home last year. Yogi has a lovely way of "chirping" when he greets his friends. I cannot think of Yogi without seeing him greet me at Ann Marie's front door with his stuffed duck in his mouth and all the while chirping away.

I had such fun helping Ann Marie train Yogi in agility. He had such potential and was a fun dog to train; he was always keen to do agility! Unfortunately he was one of those "gotta knock just one bar down" dogs! Although Ann Marie always kept things in perspective and still had fun with him. In looking back, who really cares if they knock one bar? They had fun and they were together.

Hug your dogs close and enjoy every minute training them. Keep things in perspective. Train your dogs to win but be happy with them no matter what. They are not around long enough.