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Thanks for the Dance - Tributes/Condolences

188K views 172 replies 117 participants last post by  paul young 
#1 · (Edited)
There are times that we all have or will face with our beloved retrievers that causes our hearts to ache with the pain of loss. Many who have not shared this special bond with a dog won't understand why we grieve as if we have lost a child, a best friend, a dearest companion. But those of us who have experienced this pain do understand.

If you have a favorite tribute or condolence poem that has brought comfort to you, please share it with us.

Vicky
 
#135 ·
there have been many dogs in my life but you were the first that was "mine". I remember picking you up in Mississippi like it was yesterday. You will always have a place in my heart and I miss you more than you can imagine. the bed will never be the same without you in it next to me. You weren't the most talented or the most well behaved but No future dog will ever hold a candle to you and the life I had with you. no one is ever ready for losing their four legged sons/daughters but this was especially hard because of the short time we had you on this earth. RIP Roux's Blazin Chocolate "Moose" March 26, 2012-May 7, 2015

Dog Mammal Vertebrate Dog breed Canidae
 
#136 ·
there have been many dogs in my life but you were the first that was "mine". I remember picking you up in Mississippi like it was yesterday. You will always have a place in my heart and I miss you more than you can imagine. the bed will never be the same without you in it next to me. You weren't the most talented or the most well behaved but No future dog will ever hold a candle to you and the life I had with you. no one is ever ready for losing their four legged sons/daughters but this was especially hard because of the short time we had you on this earth. RIP Roux's Blazin Chocolate "Moose" March 26, 2012-May 7, 2015

View attachment 23045
Oh gosh, I'm so sorry. It's a gut wrenching experience, but when they're that young you feel like something has been stolen from you in the most painful way. My sympathies to you and Moose's family.
 
#137 ·
I joined RTF, 7 years ago shortly after I found Maggie. A friend purchased her litter mate and when a placement didn't work out I contacted the family. I arrived to find a family that genuinely loved her but were overwhelmed by her energy level and decided to make the responsible decision to find her a permanent home that had the patience and energy level they felt was needed to ensure her happiness. After talking with them about the situation and inviting them to my home, although I was a college student at the time, I earned their confidence and with tears in their eyes, they said goodbye and our relationship began. Along with this relationship my interest in training grew significantly at this time to the point where just about all the time I was not devoting to school was spent reading, listening to, and learning hands on everything I could find on the topic. Looking back on this time, although it wasn't for lack of effort, I made more than my share of training mistakes when advancing beyond the basics. With age comes wisdom and increased respect for the great trainers who are so in tune with their dogs that they make it look easy at a test or trial. Although Maggie and I would never enter competition, the relationship her and I developed was unlike anything I had experienced previously. The same overwhelming dog, was one of the calmest, sociable, and upbeat dogs I have ever interacted with. This relationship continued with her by my side everywhere I went for the next 7 years. Last Thursday I got the phone call we all fear. While away on business the family that takes care of my dogs while I'm away,and has for some time, failed to lock the deadbolt on our exterior door and did not realize the door did not close enough for the bottom latch to secure. Sometime in the night the dogs were able to get out. Thankfully my 9yr old male stopped in a yard down the street and was taken in by the family over night and brought back the following morning. Maggie walked a little further down the street and stepped into the main road where she was hit by a car and did not make it. Returning home to a house without her in it has been extremely trying at best and this past weekend was rougher than I could have ever imagined. A walk with my other dog, usually one of the most enjoyable parts of my day, has been a heartbreaking experience without her walking at heel to my left. Opening the door without her their to greet me is an experience I still am not completely over. While awards and titles are something we would have loved to experience with each other, the time spent together trying to figure it all out and the wonderful companion I've had for the past 7 years as a result is something I will treasure forever. Although I was able to teach her things, I eventually came to realize that she taught me far more about myself during this time than I could ever teach her. I've always known that our time with them is short, far shorter than we would like it to be. When that time comes to an end much before you had accepted previously, it is a more difficult experience than all but a select few can understand. Miss you Mags.
 
#139 ·
Dedicated to my dear sweet Gyro (and Rudy,Max,Tara,Jessie,Kate,Shani, Pronto,Chip) and with apologies to Willie Nelson and Julio
To all the dogs I've loved before,
Who traveled in and out my door
I'm glad they came along, I dedicate this song
To all the dogs I've loved before
To all the dogs I once caressed, and may I say, I've owned the very best,
For helping me to grow, I owe a lot, I know,
To all the dogs I've loved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And ev'ry time I tried to stay
The winds of change continued blowing, and they just carried me away
To all the dogs who shared my life, who are at the rainbow bridge
I'm glad they came along,
I dedicate this song to all the dogs I've loved before
To all the dogs who cared for me, who filled my life with ecstasy;
They live within my heart;
I'll always be a part of all the dogs I've loved before.....
 
G
#143 ·
Almost every night i wake up and I swear I hear Bear walking on the tile in my kitchen..He will be with us forever...I miss him so much March was the one year passing of his death very hard day.. prayers sent to all who have lost their sweet babies.
 
#144 · (Edited)
Smokin Auggies Menace QAA (6/23/03)-(6/27/16)
Smokie Bear left today. He was a nice dog and loyal companion. He won a Qualifying but was retired soon after for various reasons.
Bye Smokie, love you!
.
Dog Mammal Vertebrate Dog breed Canidae
 
#147 · (Edited)
Smackwater's Miracle Man, MH
5-6-2004 8-16-2016
Luke was a gentle sole who brought us so much happiness. He was enjoying his senior years by sleeping in the A/C all day and occasionally stealing a bumper from the younger dogs.
When looking for a Boss pup Mary Howley referred us to Valerie Marks. Thank you Valarie for letting us have him. Hope Catcher was the first one he saw when he crossed.

RIP Luke.
 
#148 ·
Reese 2010-2016

Some of you may remember me from about 5 maybe 5.5 years ago. I showed up here and you all welcomed me with open arms. You steered me in the right direction and helped me mold my Reese into the dog he became. Reese molded me into the man that I am today. I stayed with you guys for quite some time but I found my self getting engrossed in forums on the net and decided to give them up for the sake of my family. I came back from time to time for bits of advice but for the most part I was gone and for that I do apologize. This is a great community! I unfortunately come back with the worst possible news. I lost my boy Friday night in a split second. To no one's fault but my own. I wrote the following passage in a fit of tears Friday night. I miss my boy I really do. But I wanted to thank you all for the community you are and the help you gave us along the way. It was the greatest six years of my life!

"Six years ago almost to the day Lindsey and I brought home a 8 week old fire ball of chocolate. He had a big block head and paws that we didn't think he would ever grow into. I can still smell that puppy breath. As hard as I try to remember he never really had much trouble adjusting. He chewed up a few socks and any toy that we got for him but he adjusted well to life here with us.

We worked hard from day one. Socializing working on basic commands and obedience. Every day was something new. I would honestly hate to know how much better of a retriever he would have been had he been trained by someone who wasn't learning too.

I am still convinced that Reese taught me far more than I ever taught him. He taught me patience, loyalty love without prejudice and new level of forgiveness. I also learned a little about dog training. Reese was a fast learner despite my best efforts. For three years we trained and hunted together until a big change came to his...our lives. The birth of our son Easton. From day one Reese was smitten. If Easton was up Reese was up. He helped me warm more bottles and change more diapers than I can count.

As Easton grew so did Reese's patience. The ear pulling the horseback riding, kicking, hitting, pulling and getting rammed with tonka trucks began. Reese took it all in stride. He was a great big brother.

We shared countless freezing mornings together in the blind and quite a few warm ones (we do live in NC). He had a drive to pick up birds that was like no other I had seen. I've watched him drive head first into a chainsaw brier thicket and come out full of thorns with cut up ears and nose. But he came back with his duck.

Reese made many friends in his six short years. I can only think of one person who he didn't like but Reese was a pretty good judge of character and that guy just needed to keep walking, but I digress. Reese was everyone's friend he loved to be rubbed, he loved to run he loved tennis balls. Reese just loved.

Two weeks ago Reese and I and three other friends had quite possibly the greatest week of hunting in my life and certainly the greatest week of his. Duck hunting in the morning and Pheasant in the evening. He worked hard that week week in Kansas and I will always keep those memories fondly in my heart.

I've gone over the strange chain of events that led up the the loss of my best friend. I've replayed it at least ten thousand times in my head already....What ifed it to death already. I held him in my arms as he took his last breaths. I had to tell my wife and my family what happened. That was hard. However not as hard as what I had to do next.

Easton is now 3. I had to tell him that his best buddy was gone. I explained to him that he was in Heaven hunting and playing with other dogs. It took a while to sink in and when it did it absolutely devastated me. I can deal with my pain but I just wanted make his pain go away.

Tonight when Easton said his prayers he prayed for Reese to get better and come home soon. Its hard to hide your tears when you hear a little prayer like that.

Reese was just 6 hours ago riding around in the front seat of my truck. I stopped and got a Sundrop and a pack of nabs. Reese got half of them. Had I know that was going to be our last ride I would have let him have them all.

I'm Gonna miss you buddy. Rest easy and I will see you again. We have more ducks to get!

Reese Maulden 2010-2016" Vertebrate Dog Mammal Canidae Labrador retriever
Dog Canidae German shorthaired pointer Braque francais Mountain cur
Vertebrate Dog Mammal Canidae Dog breed
 
#150 ·
I am at a total loss........a pup I bred died at 13 months of age...I was not there to comfort and care for him , that was a responsibility given to another . It was a trust clearly misplaced...He suffered as he slowly died ,and I will carry that with me forever . He died Thanksgiving Day , and even now it is beyond me to understand how he could be gone to the bridge . I never got to hunt him . That special bond of a partnership on the line and in the field never had a chance to be established . I spent countless hours searching pedigrees to breed my girl too . I thought I did a great match . Now I will never know . RIP Bashakill's Honcho Grade Tank ...Boss , you are missed very much . Time is the one thing you don't get enough of with your dogs.. and to lose one so young is the ultimate hurt.
 
#151 ·
This is the first time for me reading these wonderful, heartfelt tributes to not just our best friends, but a huge part of our heart. Fortunately, I'm not at this point yet, but it made me tear up as I thought about everything my dogs have meant to me.

I know when that day comes I'll be on here reading these, trying to convince myself and my heart that everything will be ok.

Thank you to everyone for sharing these.
 
#153 ·
“Ransom”- CH Coastalight Toodoggone Much CD MH ***
3/24/2007 – 6/17/2017

How does one put into mere words what a special lifelong friendship with a very special dog truly means? I find myself looking for you around every corner, waking up at night expecting to see your face at my bedside and sense your soft kisses, coming home after a rough day and you aren’t there to greet me. Life as I knew it has ceased to exist. You made every day brighter and the nights not nearly as long or dark. You answered to “Ransom”, “Handsome Ransom”, “Monkey”, “Monkey-Man”, “Hunk-A-Monk” and many other names…. You were mine and I was yours.

Our lives became intertwined over ten years ago. I anticipated your arrival long before your mother even knew you were coming. When I received pictures of you and your littermates, something stuck out about you, the dark blue collar boy. All I could do was convey what I was hoping for in a pup to your breeders, Judy Teskey and Wendy Tisdall and trust they would make the right choice for me. Of course, when I arrived on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and first laid eyes on you, I knew my gut feeling was spot on. For 3 days I played with you and your littermates, but couldn’t take my eyes off you and secretly hoped that you were the one they had picked for me. When I found out that you were their choice for me, as well, I was ecstatic, I knew it was fate and our incredible journey began!

You fit right in at home with the other dogs, kids and our goofy rules and picked up things so quickly. We had so much fun learning together. You were learning 24/7, not just when we called it training. You picked up all my idiosyncrasies, body cues, the tone of my voice and my demeanor. I was learning how to “read” you and get the most out of you. We slowly became a close-knit team. I tried hard not to ever blame you for our failures and you didn’t blame me. Lord knows we failed allot, but we worked through the difficulties. We turned failures into opportunities and became stronger together.

I never could have imagined where our journey would lead or the great people I would meet because of you. Some would say we had allot of success, but most weren’t there to see all the time we spent together to create those opportunities. Time that I now cherish even more that you aren’t here. It was certainly exciting to rack up so many achievements with you. An Obedience title, Derby win, skipping Junior and earning our first Senior and Master pass on the same day. Umpteen consecutive Master passes, including a title along the way, qualifying for 3 Master Nationals and finishing the only one I could get off work to actually stand beside you for. You finished a number of Qualifying’s and then stepped up to show me and many others that a Flat-Coat was truly capable of competing against very talented Labradors in the All-Age stakes. That Amateur 4th a few years ago was more than I had ever hoped for and I was so proud of you! The first Flat-Coat to achieve that in over 22 years! You made it deep into several other Amateurs and Opens, often surprising many who watched you, but those darned big water blinds kept getting us. That’s okay, I never held it against you… It was “our” issue together. You sure could mark birds though and I had so much fun watching you do what you loved.

Some within the breed referred to you as a “field dog”, like it was a bad thing, or something. Since some folks place such high value on a show championship, I decided, after retiring from field trials that we should give the dog show thing a shot. I knew you were a great representative of the breed, but others who valued that “Champion” title had not had the opportunity to see you, so we gave them a chance. Like everything else, you excelled at it and in just 4 weekends, at 8 years old, you finished your Conformation Championship with 4 majors. That was fun, but it was time to come home and enjoy retirement. Somebody had to hold down the couch.

While all the achievements were fun, it was the time spent together in the field, on the road and at home that I will cherish the most. You were my constant shadow. We became inseparable. While the other dogs were content doing whatever, you would not let me out of your sight. You were my special boy. The one who got to go with me to the store. The one I snuck food to when the others weren’t looking. The one who greeted me every day with a ball, toy, shoe, pillow or whatever you could find. You just loved to carry things and never tore anything up. You had a foot fetish…. I tried like crazy to keep you from licking my feet at the dinner table or while relaxing in the living room at night or getting ready for work in the morning, but you wouldn’t have it. I finally gave up trying to stop you and it became one of those quirks I miss so much about you. When you rode in the back seat of the truck, you would nudge me under the arm, just to get me to pet you or talk to you.

Who is going to trot alongside the mower for hours while I cut the grass now? Who is going to chase the neighbor’s ducks on the pond for 45 minutes straight without touching land and occasionally have “success” that I had to explain to the neighbors? Who is going to stand in the garage and stare at the shelf where I keep the Frisbees, hoping that dad has time to throw a few? Who is going to jump up on the bed and play bitey-face with me when I’m putting my socks and shoes on in the morning? Nobody was better at concealing the fact that they had a rock in their mouth, but I always knew with you. I could sense your presence in a dark room and you mine. I always knew what you were thinking and you could read me like a book.

While many other members of your breed shower affection on everybody they meet, you only had eyes for me and I for you. You were there to celebrate our greatest moments and you knew when I needed you just to be there. You were an 85 lb. lap dog, my constant companion, my best friend and you always will be. I love you with all my heart and will miss you until I see you again someday at the Rainbow Bridge, Monkey Man. Please wait for me.
 
#155 ·
Really heartfelt tribute. Godspeed Ransom.
 
#157 ·
www.webfootretrievers.com
HEAVEN'S DOGGY-DOOR My best friend closed his eyes last night,
As his head was in my hand.
The Doctors said he was in pain,
And it was hard for him to stand.
The thoughts that scurried through my head,
As I cradled him in my arms.
Were of his younger, puppy years,
And OH...his many charms.
Today, there was no gentle nudge
With an intense "I love you gaze",
Only a heart thats filled with tears
Remembering our joy filled days.
But an Angel just appeared to me,
And he said, "You should cry no more,
GOD also loves our canine friends,
HE's installed a 'doggy-door"!
jan cooper '95

 
#160 ·
Life can change in a heartbeat. I was hunting with some new guys that I met through a friend. My dog was the only dog in the field on Sunday morning. As I whistled my dog back to me, a covey of quail exploded behind him. The guy to my right took a shot and my dog dropped. He didn't make it out of the field. Just like that my life changed. Those of you that run dogs know that feeling when you bump the collar and burn your dog by accident. That is all I could think of as he looked at me trying to breath. I whistled him back and he was coming only to get shot. He looked at me as if to ask "what did I do wrong?"
It's going to be a long time before I can get back in the field.

Red Label Kennels Consuming Fire Jack 4X Grand Master Pointing Retriever

Rest in Peace little man. You deserve it! Dog Mammal Canidae Dog breed Carnivore
 
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