Liberty Belle

On a hot 4th of July nine years ago, a firecracker entered our lives. That is the day we picked Liberty Belle, aka Libby, out of a litter of 9 Golden Retriever puppies. We went with the intent of bringing home a male, but were smitten with a butterball of a female. While her brothers and sisters played, she laid sleeping quietly and peacefully. Little did we know then that this would be the nature of this sweet little princess. How appropriate we brought her home on Independence Day. She truly was an independent spirit. Always doing things her way and never wanting help! Not to say she did not have a loveable side that was always ready to be cuddled or with a nudge of her nose, let you know she wanted to be petted. Libby loved everyone she met and vice versa, everyone that met her, loved her. For all the love we showed her, she returned it twice over.

For the most part, Libby was extremely healthy. Besides the regular trips to the vet for check-ups and shots, she probably only had to go to the vet twice because of illness. That is why in January 2014, we were totally devastated with the news that our sweet girl had lymphoma. The options given to us were to give her chemo that would extend her life 6-9 months only for the cancer to return (there is no cure for lymphoma) or keep her comfortable with meds and spoil her rotten the for the time she had left with us. We chose quality over quantity. For the next 7 months, Libby was the focus of our world. She never stopped amazing us right up to the end. From the day we brought her home to the day she took her final breath, she lived to please us. She had the fight in her that even amazed the vet. True to Libby style and always doing things her way, when the day came to have the vet come out to the home to help her pass in the evening, she took her final breath during the day while we were at work to spare us the pain of seeing her life end.

It has been almost 3 weeks since she left us and not a day goes by that we don’t miss all of her little habits. Her snoring, her greeting us at the door to see what we had in the doggie bag for her, spending hours looking out the patio door guarding her domain, laying on the couch, the crunching of her eating ice cubes and the clicking of her nails on the kitchen floor while making her final sweep through the house to ensure everything was safe and then coming upstairs to join us in bed. What we would not do just have 10 more minutes!!

Thank you Sweet Libby for bringing us so much happiness and allowing us to share in your extraordinary life! Sleep tight sweetie! “Cold Nose, Warm Heart”

As Dr. Seuss said, “don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.”

Love you,
Momma and Pappa