Paving the road for Apollo

[Kasey]

I know exactly what you mean by how slow a week can go. Yesterday was one week since I lost Kasey. And what I would give for one more day. I know what you are feeling and I understand all too well at the moment. Be thankfully for the weekend you had together. I figure every week it has to get better because it could not be worse then this last week.
My thoughts are with you and I totally relate.

[Argus44]

Annette,

Im so sorry to read of Apollo's passing. Having the new pup, I dont get to Rottweiler.net as often as I used to...and its taken me this long to find this thread. :( :(

I know the pain of losing one dog in a year....I cant imagine losing 2 in less than 6 months. I admire your courage and strength that I read between the lines of your posts. Please accept my condolences.

I, too, agree on how awesome it was for the K-9 units that showed up to give a proper send off for Apollo! And I, too, would have lost it if I had been you. I lost it anyway just reading the post.

I wish you the BEST of luck with your dream of the K-9 training center...with your determination, I KNOW you will make it!!:D :D I wish to be a student also!

[WorkinDogz]

I got the call that I wasn't expecting until next week....

Apollo's remains were ready for pick up after the private cremation. :(

When I worked in Pearl River; I knew all of our "body people" and couldn't say enough about how they treated the bodies.....all of them. Private or communial cremation. They handled them with such dignity...

I knew when it was time for any of my dogs; I wanted Hartsdale Cemetary to handle them.

This pet cemetary has been featured on the Discovery Channel.... it's an amazing place.

If any of you are ever in Hartsdale, NY......stop by and visit this place. You'll see some of the most beautiful headstones and tributes to pets you'll ever see.

Hartsdale is the oldest pet cemetary in the US. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful, caring staff to handle the body of my boy.

Apollo........is home.

[CajunsMom]

My thoughts and prayers are with you during this sad time. So sorry for your loss.

[rottie girl]

It's been a month since Apollo went to the bridge and I'm just reading this now. I don't have much time these days to read any forums and I really debated even clicking on the Rainbow Bridge as I knew where it would lead. I never thought that for 20 minutes tears would be staining my cheeks.

I'm saddened by the heartache you must be experiencing. I hope I am as strong as you when it's my turn to have to make a decision as tough as this.

My dogs are 8 years and last week I discovered a lump the size of an orange in Brandi's side. I'm frightened beyond belief and haven't got up enough courage to make the appointment to have it looked at. I check everyday just hoping it will be gone. :(

God Bless Apollo.

[Caesarsmom]

Enjoyed your poem very much, WD. It expresses how many of us feel at the loss of our beloved kids. I am so sorry for your loss of Apollo.

Thought I'd share this one even though I'm sure most of you have seen it before:

Where To Bury A Dog

There are various places within which a dog may be buried.
We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought.
This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam,
and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave.
Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub of the
garden, is an excellent place to bury a good dog.
Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder.
These are good places, in life or in death.
Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else.
For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questioning, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last.
On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside an exhilarating stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives.
But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all.
If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already
have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again.
And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there.
People may scoff at you, who see not the slightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.
The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of the master.

by Ben Hur Lampman