Bonnie
A donation was made in memory of Bonnie on Jan 27, 2011.
In Loving Memory of our Beloved Bonnie
November 16, 2006 – December 26, 2010
Bonnie and Clyde were the ultimate Christmas gift four years ago for our then 12 year old daughter. Our two blonde golden retrievers, brother and sister were a double dose of trouble; in a good way. Bonnie to me was more like a cat at times than a dog. She would be content curled up beside you taking a nap. It didn’t seem to matter where you were sitting, on a sofa or chair, Bonnie would climb up to cuddle. She walked like a cat and didn’t like to get her hair (fur) wet. Well, what dog likes that, however Clyde didn’t seem to mine as much.
When Bonnie was just a puppy, we use to play this game that she would chase after a tennis ball. When you would try to take it from her she would not release the ball. She would love for you to try to take the ball out of her mouth as she clamped down on it with all her might. We would try to retrieve it by shaking her head back and forth as we held onto the ball. It was her favorite thing to do. Whenever we would go outside, she would run to find the ball.
Bonnie was the cutest little cat, I mean puppy. But she was a little instigator. One day when they four months old, they dug a hole by the fence in our back yard and Bonnie managed to wiggle her body out to the other side. I heard this continuous barking which led me to investigate. When I first looked out the window from our second floor I could not see them. So, I open the window and started calling their names. Then I see Bonnie running along the back of the fence, but I did not see Clyde. So, I started calling his name. When I finally saw Clyde he was stuck underneath the fence. His head on the other side to freedom, adventure and mischief while his other half stuck in back yard. I imagined Bonnie saying “come on Clyde, come on!”, as she stood on the other side encouraging him to come join her. But, Clyde torso was a slightly bigger than Bonnie’. It was the funniest thing ever.
After spending this past Christmas day (2010) with our beloved puppies, all the love in the world could have not prepared us for the heartbreak that we were soon to experience the day after Christmas. When we returned home from church, our daughter went to feed Bonnie and Clyde. When she went into the back yard she discovered Bonnie lying very still with her head lying on her front paws barely breathing with her stomach swollen to an unimaginable size. We rushed Bonnie to the emergency vet, but it was too late. We were all shocked when the vet said that Bonnie had died from Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus (“GDV”) bloat in dogs. Even after many discussions and research on what type of dogs we were planning to have joined our family, we didn’t remember reading about GDV.
We now know that one out of two large chest dogs will die from this. Some reports indicate that GDV is the second leading killer of dogs after cancer. After reading about GDV, we only recognized a couple of the many symptoms that would have indicated that she was in trouble. I recently re-watched the movie “Marley & Me” that I had seen at the movie theater with our daughter a couple of years ago. That was the first time that I had ever heard of GDV and even then I didn’t know what the condition was. It is astonishing that a dog can fill up with so much air that their stomach could swell and rotate 90 to 360 degrees and twist the intestine.
Clyde is enjoying the extra attention that he has been getting since Bonnie’s passing. We know that he misses her probably more than we do, after all they did everything together. We know our heartache will heal over time, we treasure the memories that Bonnie has given us and value the time that we were bless to have her be a part of lives.
The Friday Family
November 16, 2006 – December 26, 2010
Bonnie and Clyde were the ultimate Christmas gift four years ago for our then 12 year old daughter. Our two blonde golden retrievers, brother and sister were a double dose of trouble; in a good way. Bonnie to me was more like a cat at times than a dog. She would be content curled up beside you taking a nap. It didn’t seem to matter where you were sitting, on a sofa or chair, Bonnie would climb up to cuddle. She walked like a cat and didn’t like to get her hair (fur) wet. Well, what dog likes that, however Clyde didn’t seem to mine as much.
When Bonnie was just a puppy, we use to play this game that she would chase after a tennis ball. When you would try to take it from her she would not release the ball. She would love for you to try to take the ball out of her mouth as she clamped down on it with all her might. We would try to retrieve it by shaking her head back and forth as we held onto the ball. It was her favorite thing to do. Whenever we would go outside, she would run to find the ball.
Bonnie was the cutest little cat, I mean puppy. But she was a little instigator. One day when they four months old, they dug a hole by the fence in our back yard and Bonnie managed to wiggle her body out to the other side. I heard this continuous barking which led me to investigate. When I first looked out the window from our second floor I could not see them. So, I open the window and started calling their names. Then I see Bonnie running along the back of the fence, but I did not see Clyde. So, I started calling his name. When I finally saw Clyde he was stuck underneath the fence. His head on the other side to freedom, adventure and mischief while his other half stuck in back yard. I imagined Bonnie saying “come on Clyde, come on!”, as she stood on the other side encouraging him to come join her. But, Clyde torso was a slightly bigger than Bonnie’. It was the funniest thing ever.
After spending this past Christmas day (2010) with our beloved puppies, all the love in the world could have not prepared us for the heartbreak that we were soon to experience the day after Christmas. When we returned home from church, our daughter went to feed Bonnie and Clyde. When she went into the back yard she discovered Bonnie lying very still with her head lying on her front paws barely breathing with her stomach swollen to an unimaginable size. We rushed Bonnie to the emergency vet, but it was too late. We were all shocked when the vet said that Bonnie had died from Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus (“GDV”) bloat in dogs. Even after many discussions and research on what type of dogs we were planning to have joined our family, we didn’t remember reading about GDV.
We now know that one out of two large chest dogs will die from this. Some reports indicate that GDV is the second leading killer of dogs after cancer. After reading about GDV, we only recognized a couple of the many symptoms that would have indicated that she was in trouble. I recently re-watched the movie “Marley & Me” that I had seen at the movie theater with our daughter a couple of years ago. That was the first time that I had ever heard of GDV and even then I didn’t know what the condition was. It is astonishing that a dog can fill up with so much air that their stomach could swell and rotate 90 to 360 degrees and twist the intestine.
Clyde is enjoying the extra attention that he has been getting since Bonnie’s passing. We know that he misses her probably more than we do, after all they did everything together. We know our heartache will heal over time, we treasure the memories that Bonnie has given us and value the time that we were bless to have her be a part of lives.
The Friday Family
