Saying Goodbye

Julie wrote the tribute. I couldn’t have done it better. There are things I want to say, want to write. Later.

On April 20^th Fleetfire Timbers’ Victoria ROM chose to say “good-bye.”

Victoria had turned 15 yrs old last Halloween, she had been blind for over a year but other than that she was happy and healthy.

I’ve told myself I have accepted death as a natural part of life, and it is better to end life than to suffer.  And yet, I find myself in tears each time I think of Victoria. I’m sadden by her loss, of course, but it is more than that.  Victoria’s life was a timeline to mine.  So many milestones were reached during her 15+ years of life.  I remembering naming the litter, sitting at Debby’s kitchen table, how many times over the years have Debby and I shared that experience?  I remember Debby gifting Victoria to my daughter Kaylee, her first Junior Showmanship dog-Kaylee is now almost 25 and an expert handler/breeder in her own right. Victoria is C’est La Vie’s mom, the dog that changed me and my life the most.   Phone calls on health, new litters and sharing all the wins and losses, the highs and the lows that have been part of my “dog” life.  Victoria has been with me through all of them these past 15+ years.  For the past couple of years I have been telling myself it is time move on, and although I know it is right for me it is very hard to let go of a past I truly loved and made me the person I am today.

I think Victoria is telling me the time is right, it is time to go forward on that new path- without her.