At six weeks of age,
we met a very adorable puppy who we immediately fell in love with. Two
weeks later, we took this cute, little fur ball home and named her Shannon
because she was born on St. Patrick’s Day. As most pups are, she was
rambunctious, mischievous and frequently got herself into trouble as she
explored our home. She loved checking out the dishwasher and kitchen
closets. We also discovered later that she also enjoyed chewing on the
wood rungs of our kitchen chairs. These chairs have never been replaced.
At twelve months or
so, Shannon began to exhibit signs of the terrible twos. She was willful
and seemed to delight in pulling out the ivy groundcover around the
backyard shed. Shannon also developed a taste for leaves, collecting twigs
and loved chasing any rabbit who dared to enter her backyard.
With training and
maturation, Shannon grew into that beautiful girl who traveled with us
from Nova Scotia to Florida. While in New Hampshire, we altered a bumper
sticker to read “This car and golden retriever climbed Mt. Washington.”
Shannon always
considered herself to be more of a person than a dog. During GRRI events,
she loved socializing with the volunteers and other people and made
herself at home inside the merchandise trailer. Her favorite part of
going to GRRI events was the ride there and home. When she had enough,
she would cry and lead one of us to the car as if she was saying “enough
is enough, time to go home.”
Life seemed good for
Shannon until she was diagnosed with cancer at age eight. However, after
two surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy, she recovered and was cancer
free for eighteen months. The radiation treatments were very difficult for
both Shannon and us. Although clearly exhausted from each treatment,
Shannon was always ready and happy to return to the clinic for the next
session.
In late April of
2008, Shannon’s prognosis was good; her oncologist was very pleased with
her progress. Our joy at this news was not to last; two weeks later she
was diagnosed with an aggressive tumor on the heart. When we returned to
the clinic the next day Shannon seemed to return to normal, but we knew
she had only weeks to live, if that long, so that evening we made our
decision to say goodbye. It was so very heartbreaking to see her go to the
door of the office telling us that she wanted to go home, knowing that she
never would. So we said goodbye to our beautiful Shannon who we will
always love and remember.
