Your Pet Tributes

'Scarlett'

by Diane Scott
(Gainesville Florida)

It's been over a month now and I miss my girl. It's not like I hadn't had other dogs come and go in my life. I've always had multiple dogs. In fact, I still have two tiny rat terriers and a Siamese I adore. But my Scarlett was something very special.

We had only been together 3.5 years and I never knew how old she was. Just how devastatingly sick she was when I found her in that shelter. I looked into those hershey chocolate eyes and I had to have her. We connected so strongly in an instant, before I knew it, I was filling out adoption papers and I was walking out the door with her.

She'd been used and abused and thrown away to that shelter. She was rail thin from producing so many healthy puppies, because her nipples were stretched so long they never did go back after nursing her last set of babies. She had hookworm and heartworm and her coat was so dull, none of the magnificence of the dobermans I had seen in the show ring years earlier.

My vet said, that her hind leg had been broken as a puppy and had never been set correctly. She was a mess. But time, love, patience and a good vet and we turned her life around. She got healthy and her coats glistened in the sun so much it almost hurt your eyes. She never seemed to stop smiling. She was so happy and she adored me.

She was fine that morning. We had our morning walk and she came in the doorway and before I could close the door, she dropped like a stone and was gone! She was probably dead before she hit the floor and that was probably good, because I was so devastated she would have been upset to know the grief her loss would bring.

To say that I loved her seems so trivial. My girl is gone and I still hurt.