Her memory lives on

Our darling Chloe might have gone to doggy heaven last month, but her memory lives on.

Back when she was young and beautiful (before she became mature and beautiful) and before she had babies, Chloe did a spot of doggy modelling for a company producing a range of dried liver treats for dogs. They must have loved her image because I still come across the tins of liver sprinkles from time to time in the pet food aisle of Woolworths or Coles here in Australia.

I found these in Coles last week and I was just so excited! Let me tell you a secret. The reason Chloe is smiling so broadly is because I was behind the cameraman jumping up and down, waving my arms in the air and gibbering, generally making a complete fool of myself. It was so worth it, don't you think?

Another wonderful memento we have is this little wallhanging that my lovely friend Di made. She's used gold-stamped fabric for the star and machine embroidered Chloe's name and the dates she was born and passed away. To complete it I wrapped a lock of her fur with a gold bow and pinned it to the corner. We have Di's thoughtful gift hanging on the wall in the room where we relax.

Nice memories!

Our Golden Girl

Chloe

Chloe was six months old when she came to us, a pretty little champagne coloured puppy with gentle, loving eyes. She had an impressive pedigree but she was small for a golden retriever – even for a female – and that, along with her mottled nose, meant she would never strut her stuff in the show ring. We didn’t care, though, because she was destined for a higher calling – to be our loved family pet.

Chloe was ‘golden’, but hardly a ‘retriever’ - she steadfastly refused to fetch a ball more than once, fixing us with an exasperated look that seemed to say “Why should I get it when all you’ll do is throw it away again?”

Built for comfort rather than speed, in recent years she loved nothing better than to laze on a warm garden bed soaking up the morning sun. She enjoyed so many cuddles during her full and happy life, and showed endless patience with our tiny granddaughter. After all, she had been a mother herself – after a one-night stand with the border collie down the road. It sure made us smile to see Chloe suckling five little black bundles of joy! Here she is with her babies (in no particular order!) Winston, Billie, Sox, Satchmo and Whoopi.

Sadly, we had to say our final goodbyes to our darling Chloe yesterday when she became very ill. She was 14 years old - a good age, we’re told, for a golden retriever.

As one of our children said, “She was a good girl”.

I like to think she’s in God’s perfect doggy heaven now, her old bones warmed by the sun as she sleeps forever on His flower bed.

[I know this is basically theologically unsound, but please let me have my fantasy. It helps.]

Scatterday D - Week 17

This week's Scatterday is brought to you in haste by the letter D and the extremely disorganised and distracted Di.

My computer is about to be hurled against the wall unless it gets its act together and starts to think faster - it's slowed to a crawl and I don't have enough hours in my life that I am prepared to waste while I wait for it to create a mosaic for me.

So, I'm afraid it's a No Frills / No Mosaic Scatterday this week.

The categories are:

Sewing - Here we have DMC embroidery cottons.


Vehicle - and here is a Delivery Van that was obligingly parked across the road this afternoon (a bit of a pattern emerging here - see last week's Kombi Van)

Touchy, Feely - and who better than my elderly, but very cuddly, huggable and gorgeous Dog, Chloe. Golden retrievers are such affectionate and gentle dogs!