Category Archives: Gone but not forgotten

Infrequent Updates

  By C-Myste | March 3, 2013 - 10:43 am | , , , , ,
2 Comments

Sometimes life (AKA work) intervenes.  And sometimes there is news that is sad to report, as in the last post: Losses and Memories.   To which we add the February losses, both born in 1999.   Run free, C-Myste Oscar Braveheart age 13 1/2.   You are greatly missed.

And CH C-Myste There and Back Again (Bilbo) who had just celebrated his 14th birthday and now lives on in generation after generation.

In both of the recent passings, the question of “when is it time?” arose.   I sent the following links to NY Times articles to Oscar’s “mom” Justine.   I thought it would be beneficial to post them here for anyone who might also be facing the decision and so that I can find them again when I need them.

Deciding when a pet has suffered enough

Weighing the end of life

 

So as not to be too depressing: we still get happy updates as well.

As I write this, Bilbo has more great-great grandchildren being born to Garrett Ramsey’s Ava.

Here is Wally (grandson of the original) at six months, wishing a happy half-birthday to his brothers and sisters:

 

Anita recently sent a couple of videos of Huxley daughter Audie, who is learning to stand up for herself against those boys!   I have uploaded them on my blogroll page.

 

Losses and Memories

  By C-Myste | February 2, 2013 - 1:36 pm | , , , , ,
3 Comments

In some ways it is hard to believe, but in another way it seems so long ago: it was 17 years ago this weekend that our first Cardigan litter was bred.  Donna Daniels (then in Seattle) and I met at Carol Delsman’s (then in Hillsboro) with Smoky and Julie.  Novices that we were, when a tie was not accomplished in short order we tried to AI – with all of the wrong equipment.  We then let the two out into the yard to play while we relaxed.   A while later, we went to call the dogs in.    ”Here Smoky, Here Julie!”   no response.  We called again, and again . . . and here came da beyootiful Jawoo, trucking across the yard, bringing Smoky with her.  Literally bringing Smoky with her, walking backwards as quickly as he could.

What a fun weekend it turned out to be, as it stretched into the next week.  One of those ice storms roared westward from the gorge.  We made a quick store run and stocked up on essentials (beer, wine, chips) and then waited it out until it was safe to drive.

Last week Tamera let me know that they had to let the last of the puppies go.   Jake, you were a good boy.  The surprise bonus puppy, the last born and last to leave us.

C-Myste Jake  04/03/96 – 01/21/13

On the 22nd it was Cenny.  The happiest little dog with the sunniest disposition, in spite of being passed from home-to-home and in spite of the physical trials he had to endure.  In the picture below, he is with Jo Campbell’s dad who provided his final home.  Cenny was one of three in a litter of six who suffered from IVDD.   You can read about his initial surgery on my earlier post: Cenwyn’s ordeal.  Almost six years later he went down again and the decision was made to let him go.

 C-Myste Baledwr N’Spiration  05/26/02 – 01/22/13

Yesterday, Grace Troup let me know that Ginger lost her battle with kidney failure.  The Troups had three from us over the years, all sadly gone now.  Ginger was a little sable girl from Julie’s third and final litter by CH Davenitch Garth o’Chaps.    Alas, I do not have a picture of her to share.  I still remember her as a little puppy crawling into Grace’s lap at a dog show and saying “I’m yours!”  Grace was just a little girl then too.

C-Myste Heart’s Afire  06/23/99 – 02/01/13

The first loss of the year was untimely and especially sad.  Mirrhi, litter sister to Hannah, escaped the yard through an unnoticed hole in the fence.  She was hit by a car and killed instantly just a block from home.    Mirrhi was a sweet and loving girl and has left a big black Mirrhi-sized hole in the hearts of Gary & Louise.

CH C-Myste Baledwr Mirrhi   01/14/06 – 01/14/13.

Our deepest sympathies go out to another member of the “family”.   Megan and Josh had to let Aussie Lacey go today.   It’s so hard to see so many young dogs become old and then pass on.

Memories of Meg

  By C-Myste | August 31, 2011 - 7:55 pm | , ,
13 Comments

C-Myste Baledwr N’Chantress HSAs
05/26/02 – 08/31/11

Meg at 8 weeks

Little red sisters: Meghan, Penny, Inca

Beach Girls: Meg and Stormy

Our feisty little girl was lost to injuries from a predator attack, possibly a young cougar. Her registered name was N’Chantress but it might have better been N’Domitable.

My sympathies to all of the others who loved this little red girl.

 

The First Blue Girls

  By C-Myste | June 18, 2011 - 8:53 am | , ,
5 Comments

It seems to me that people are always writing looking for blue girls. They don’t know how difficult that model has been for us to make. We breed blue and black occasionally and tend to get all black puppies, or one blue girl who is a fluf,f or one blue girl with a red head and no coat. Wally and Hannah One produced pretty boys of many colors, three black girls, and one clear red girl. It wasn’t until Wally and Hannah Two that we had two blue girls to choose from. That’s two out of a total of nineteen puppies!

But in our first litter ever, Smoky x Julie back in 1996 we had not one, not two, but four blue girls.

With the passing of Dru (C-Myste Celtic Druid) shortly after her 15th birthday, all are now gone.

Dru’s “mom” Marion sent some pictures from long-ago days with permission to share.

Marion with Tess and Wendy Sue, circa 1997.

I believe Marion was holding them while Mandy was in the show ring with Dru.

Tess was CH C-Myste Thistle and Shamrock, who is in many pedigrees today due to her single litter by Phi-Vestavia Kallel. I sometimes regretted placing her rather than breeding her again, but she was the only Cardigan we have ever owned who could actually climb trees as well as fences.

Wendy was CH C-Myste Gwendolyn of KT, placed after she finished and not bred due to dog-aggression issues. On the other hand sisters Dru and my own Kacy were two of the sweetest dogs ever put on the earth.

Sweet old girl Dru.

Dru was bred for one litter to Duncan, CH C-Myste Nobody’s Fool. That would be the litter with six black puppies. Kristine’s Riley is from that litter, along with Ellie and Kathy’s Spirit, and Baha, dam to Traci’s Dakota.

Thank you Marion, for the walk down Memory Lane.

Lost and Fingers Crossed for Found

  By C-Myste | June 15, 2011 - 6:58 pm | , , ,
9 Comments

The last month has been emotionally gut-wrenching in the Cardigan family. It started with the loss of Cosmo to a fast-growing tumor on the same day Echo to what we now believe was a diaphragmatic hernia subsequent to her collision with a car in February. Mirrhi and Spencer were lost but thankfully found their way back home. Music was lost to IVDD at age 12. I heard from Bob and Pam in Portland that both Tess and Scout have passed on (they are looking for another adult). And Marion wrote to me about Dru’s passing at age 15.

Yesterday evening it was just about the final straw to learn that Nash was missing. Our relief for him (and Jeri, Dave, and family) was palpable. But short on the heels of that sigh of relief we learned that Nash’s first cousin Finn is also missing.

Finn as a puppy

Finn is 14 months old, neutered, wearing a purple collar and and a red harness. Missing in West Seattle, vicinity of 37th and Barton. If seen do not chase! Help is needed in searching for him: contact me and I connect you with the right people.


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Notice the very large wooded park nearby. I am holding out hope that he can be recovered.

Finn is one of the Chase x Magic puppies, litter brother to this year’s Winner’s Bitch at our national specialty.

Even when you know it’s coming . . .

  By C-Myste | June 11, 2011 - 8:49 am | , ,
12 Comments

. . . it’s still sad. Our hearts go out to Noelle this week as she let Music (C-Myste Chaps Heart and Soul) go. Music had been battling IVDD for some time (chronic, not acute). She would have been 12 on the 23rd of this month.

Good old girl

Music and Elvis

Music and Elvis visited Dick’s for Elvis’s ninth birthday last month. Elvis ate his burger faster than the camera could capture it.

This was Music on one of her better days in April after Noelle first asked how to know when it is “time”. I counseled “when she has more bad days than good days”. I also told her that I’ve never heard someone say they let a dog go too early but I have that they have let them go too late. I let Mu’s mother Julie go too late.

Years later I can now remember Julie as a middle-aged happy dog. The other day when I was pulling in to the driveway I was thinking about the way Julie and Kacy would greet my arrival and picturing them in my mind. Of course I have a new pack now who greets me with even more enthusiasm (or wild abandon). But I’m happy that I can remember my first old girls with sweet sadness rather than pain.

Home!

  By C-Myste | June 10, 2011 - 6:34 am | ,
16 Comments

From Louise this morning:

12:38 am-coyotes woke me, I went to the door to call dogs, they came running into the house and straight to bed. I fed them and by 12:41 we were all in bed. I tried not to think of ticks and dogs smelling like the woods and skunk. Wagging and kissing for several hours. I am immensely relieved. Thank you for the good thoughts. Juniper is suggesting we cut off half of Mirrhi’s toes to slow her down.