Good bye my dimeycakes, I love you.

[Snert]

I will never forget the first time I set eyes on you back in may 2004. You were just about a year old. You were still a young pup that someone thought was disposable. I took you for that first walk out of the shelters kennel and we bonded there was a gleam in your eyes. You were young bright and well behaved. My heart just melted, thanknfully noone else saw this, gotta keep my man status.

I remember we walked you out through all the other dogs in the shelter and you getting scared from them all barking at you. You stopped in your tracks and gave me that scared look. I scooped you up and carried you to the back yard.

This was where we all sealed the deal. You instantly bonded with your new siblings, both 2 legged and 4. To see the magic of the bond happen before my eyes was wonderfull.

The first time you walked into the house and went on a sniff fest was something to see. We watched every step you made wondering "oh no are you going to pee". To our delight you didnt, and slowley you started to settle right in. We saw the looks of confusion on you face, whe you did things and expected to be scolded. Instead we laughed, you were getting a taste of freedom, and enjoyed it.

I remember the first time you saw the deer in the back yard you walked out and froze. You did not know what they were or what to do. We did not know if you would try to chase them but you listed to our command.

I will never forget the first time you barked to protect your new family. Some people were walking down the street. You could hear them and ran to the window, and let out one serious don't mess with my family bark... And you turned to look as to where I was to see if you were in trouble. We let you do your thing, we let you protect us from harm.
You were so proud, and so were we, a stronger bond was made.

I remember the first time you jumped up onto the couch and rested your head on my lap. You were like a big goofy pile of goo. You had a scared look expecting to be yelled at for being there. But I know you just wanted to share your love and happiness. you were getting freedoms you never had by the looks of things. It was so refreshing to see you starting to relax and adjust to your new forever home.

You traveled with us even though you got scared the first time we went to Tennesee. I think you thought you were going back to the pound. But after a while you calmed down and settled in. Once in tenn. I rember you chasing grandmas cat and almost gettin it. The looks on Grandma's face when the bed was in the air. We think the cat lost one of her nine lives that day. But low and behold thank goodness you didnt get the cat.

I remember the first X-mass tree with you in your forever home. We were having battles of steal the ornaments off the tree. Unfortunatly you were not so gracefull on the first attempt. Something about the x-mass tree falling over on you kinda gave it away.. And the game was on from there..

The bear incedent... Gosh that was a experiance and then some. I remember letting you out for the your bed time potty run and the bear was behind the swingset in the shadows. You went out the door took 2 steps and went in to protection mode. I really got to see your seroius side, I never saw a bear move that fast either. You scared it away and stood your ground. I remeber having to come out and literally pull you back in. You showed me you had no fear and wanted to protect your family.

In conversation I always refered to you as my fuzzy kid. You listened , you were respectfull, you changed peoples thoughts of your breed. I will never forget you warming up to our friend who was scared to death of you. After a few months you completly changed her over. YOU cured her fear and made her a better person.

I will never forget the look on your face as Mommy rubbed your ears. You had that homer sompson dreaming of a doughnut look. As goofy as it was we loved to see it, you were in your own little relaxed utopia.

There are so many memories.. I wish I could tell them all.

There were some changes in your health.. We were scared, we took you to the vet. They did some blood work . They said you had some infection going on and put you on a antibiotic. This seemed to work some and made a differance. We hoped and prayed , but something gave me this feeling . This feeling was not good, but you kept your head up high for us.
We did some tests and x-rays and this shed some light on your issues. The vet felt you might have cancer. We hoped and prayed they were wrong. We took you for a ultrasound, this gave us answers. They were not answers we wanted to hear but we now know what the problem was. They told us you had cancer in your liver, kidney, and lungs. It was just a matter of time, could be one week or more but the end was near.

YOU held your head high and proud and never showed any signs of pain or discomfort. I know you were doing this for us. We could see your energy level was down. Slowely you started to eat less. we tryed everything from steak to ice-cream. We saw it was time to let you go with dignity and pride.

Last night we talked and you could hear everything we said. We told you we loved you and we didnt want you to suffer. We told you you were a big part of our family and we loved you for everything you bought to us. We explaind it was only going to get worse,and this was the right thing to do. And we could not be selfish to make you go on. Mommy and I told you it was OK to go. we all went to bed you followed as always.
We said good night gave you hugs and kisses, we told you we loved you. Little did we know what was yet to come.
We thank you , we love you and we will miss you.
We found you by the bed this morning when we awoke. You were there as if to still be asleep. But during the night you decided to go over the rainbow bridge. We feel you waited till we said it was OK to go, as if you awaited our permission to go. I held you close and cried for so long you were gone. I felt relief, but am still sad. It hurts so much to lose you .
I honestly feel this is what you wanted, to go peacefully at home. Not in the vets office, surrounded by strangers. Granted I would not let you go without being by your side holding you. BUT you loved it here and must have felt this was where you wanted to pass on because our unconditional love at home.
I know you will forever be watching over us, as our guardian angle. I still feel you are here with us in the house. I do miss your wagging stubb and sniff downs at the door. I miss the little puddles of drool on the floor at dinner time. I will miss you hogging the bed at night and sleeping around you.

YES i will miss you, I will never forget you, you will always be in my heart and part of my soul and family. I thank you for evrything you have given to us , from the unconditional love, to the protection of your 2 legged siblings.

Diamond- you were a true diamond, for this I must say THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU and good bye till we meet at the rainbow bridge...


Snert

[wa3ra]

shared tears.

[dc dalton]

Wow bud, very sorry to hear it. I know you had mentioned the health issues before.

In some ways it was nice she decided it was time on her own and could move on from the home she loved, sometimes I wish ours could have gone like that.

As you know we just put our old girl down two weeks ago, never pleasant. Just keep all the great memories with you .... as the old saying goes no one (or thing) really dies as long as we remember them.

[normanvin]

Its always tough to loose a good friend.

[Kimba]

I am very sorry for your loss.

[mjfletcher]

You got me crying now. I found my Opimus the same way, curled up in his favorite winter spot next to the radiator. No matter how hard we try, we never truly appreciate how much a part of our life they are till they're gone. Diamond will be waiting right there to greet you when your time comes, till then he'll have lots of friends to play with and not be too lonely.

[dc dalton]

Funny too, while this thread brings a tear to the eye it also go me thinking (and looking at pet finder) for an animal that needs a good home. Spent a while looking at some beautiful German Shepards (that's the next one, I grew up with one and want another) tonight.

Tootie and I said we were going to wait a while after Bogart but I'm thinking next month we are going to start looking for another dog that needs a warm loving home, makes me even sadder to think about all the animals out there that don't have the kind of home and love mentioned in the OP than it does to think of friends we've lost.

Funny how all these 'big bad' gun owners here are probably the biggest group of animal lovers I've ever seen.

[Tomcat088]

Damn, I almost started crying, and that's a rare thing. Beautiful piece written to share your memories with us. Thank you for sharing those with us. I'm very sorry for your loss and I will keep you and your family in my prayers. I'm very sorry to hear that diamond is gone, but also quite pleased to hear how diamond went right there with you.

[Nic]

Sorry mate. Thanks for sharing.

[adymond]

Snert, You and your family are in my thoughts. If there is any dog that was meant to be the greeter at the rainbow bridge it was my Penny. My wife always called her a cheerleader. It's been four years and it is still a raw wound. I know the pain and wish you would hear or read something any of us would say that would make things better, but there's nothing that can be said or done to lessen the loss.

My condolences.