June 2006

My baby came to me in March of 2002. We had just purchased our first home 4 months ago and decided it was time our male Boxer, Basil, should have a sister. So after visiting the Boxer Rescue website many times, we decided to try to adopt Sugar.

As far as anyone knew her first life was spent in a puppy mill in Ohio for approx. 10 years and when she arrived in our driveway she looked every bit of it. Not expecting this, I honestly felt that there must have been a mistake because she didn't have "The Look" I was hoping for but when she lifted her tired head, I saw in her eyes a need for her to love and more importantly to be loved. That look melted my heart and I knew that after 10 years, she had finally made it home.

I am writing this because Sugar has passed on and I'm finding it difficult to let her go even knowing that any pain she may have had is gone and her dignity if well intact.

I lost my girl and my soul aches but I learned one important thing from Sug, "the look" that's important is the one in her eyes not "the standard" that so many people require. When she arrived, her eyes told me "I love you" and a few days ago, they told me "Let me go", so I'll try Sug because your brother's eyes are begging me to carry on and you taught me how to look into them.

Now go run Sweetie and we'll meet again.