Our dogs mean everything to us. That is a pretty safe statement to make in this retriever sport of ours as applies to virtually every one of us. Our dogs become extensions of our very being and we don't know what we would do without them. We arrange our lives around them for their lives become part of ours...
In the back of the program printed for each and every National there is a page dedicated to the dogs that are qualified but not entered. Now, this could be for any number of reasons. Perhaps the owner lives too far from the time zone that the National is held for that year and feels the time and expense is too steep for the potential gain or loss in trial potential. The owner may feel the dog is too young to compete with the big dogs, or too old to hang in with the young dogs.
And then there is another category that might apply. Deceased. A fact of life, to be sure, but circumstances can vary greatly from there...was it timely and more or less expected, or was it too fast and did it take you nearly or totally unaware?
FC Fargo II may have been eleven years old, but he wasn't showing any signs of age. Until six weeks before his decline and subsequent passing. We just never know how much time we have with our dogs...and we must tune in to how important it is to read the hints our dogs give to us, however subtle they may be...Here is the last photo of Fargo.
Please read more titled "Quality of Life" on the back page of Retriever News in Tailfeathers, January 2009 issue.
