We had Grace Maria, a whippet cross, for just six short months. She was found as a stray by a friend on 11-14-99, over 10 years old by the best estimates, and we were still able to squeeze milk out of her nipples -- she had just weaned a litter. She had a terrible heart murmur, mammary tumors, and on x-rays, 13 pellets of metal gunshot peppered in her body. My friend begged me to take her, since her chances of
being adopted or accepted by a no-kill shelter were low because of her age. I said I couldn't take another dog, as I had six rescues already.
So Cheryl took Gracie in. But in the summer of 2000, Grace Maria began urinating in the house, which had summer renters who were
less than sympathetic. So, my husband Gary and I agreed to take Grace for the rest of the summer on July 4 weekend, 2000. By then, the
house/animal caretaker was often gone too many hours for a dog to be alone, and Grace had always been a bit reserved. By the time she
came to us, she was withdrawn. We coaxed this beautiful girl with love, love love. She came out of her shell, even though she spent many
hours just sleeping on "her" bed upstairs. Then, when summer ended, we decided to keep Grace. She had become so much a part of our
routine.  Despite her little accidents in the house, we loved her very much. Sometime in Sept/Oct, she went into renal failure. With the help of our  vets, we were able to keep her kidneys functioning well, and she actually had several weeks of acting like a puppy, prancing around at dinner time, barking at the top of the stairs. She ate like a horse where she had previously been a picky eater, and actually gained 4 pounds while sick the first time! We had never seen these behaviours before from Grace Maria, and so surmised she had been getting ill for some time, probably from the hard life she had led as a stray. She crashed on Christmas Day, and we put her back on IV therapy. Luckily, we were able to keep her home, since I am a vet tech and could manage the treatments at home. Our beautiful, wondrous Grace was still eating, however right after New Year's, she began to turn her nose up at her food. Rather than wait and watch her get worse, or keep her going with drugs for settling her stomach I decided to help her over the Rainbow Bridge on January 4, 2001. It was the hardest decision I have ever made. I held her as she gently fell "asleep", and I can only hope she knew I let her go in love and deepest gratitude for allowing me to share her life with her. Grace Maria was truly beauty and grace on earth and we miss her terribly. Wait for me, make me a place, Gracie. We will see you again, and we love you.  All the other dogs  miss her, especially Belle, her sleeping partner and Bailey who guarded her and licked her IV catheter site the day she went to dog heaven? We all miss you, Grace Maria - Mindy, Gary, Melon, Armand, Lili, Lucky, Leihke, Bailey, Joshua, Bridget, Wilma and Belle.