In 1993, Animal Angels was located in Southlake, Texas, and on occasion, I use to help a mobile vet, Mark Andrews and his wife Katherine.  They would set up at Master Made Feed Store in Grapevine and do low cost vaccines, spay/neuters, etc.  On one of these occasion’s, someone came in with a little 6 month old female German Shepherd X pup they had found.  So begins the story of Liz.

In 1996, Liz, all the angels, and myself left Tarrant County and headed west in search of more space for our burgeoning group.  We settled on 7 acres in Wise County, near Bridgeport, Texas.  It was here, in July of 1997, that a nice lady named Julie Martin came to visit.  Most people would opt to adopt a cute & cuddly or a pretty or unusual looking dog.  Julie wanted to adopt two larger dogs. Her only stipulation was that she wanted to adopt the two that had the least chance of ever being adopted.  I knew exactly who to show her.  Liz was already 4 years old and weighed about 50 lbs. and while she was the sweetest and most gentle little girl in the world, there was nothing spectacular or unusual about her.  My other choice was Noah, a 60 lb. black Lab X.  He was 3 years old, rather timid and totally unremarkable but the best thing was, he and Liz were buddies.  Now they could spend their whole lives together.  The other nice thing about this story is that they would be living in Bridgeport so I could visit anytime I wanted.

Over the years, Julie & I kept in touch.  I would go by to visit from time to time and take them treats and food when we had extra.  In the ensuing years, two strays found their way to Julie’s door and she took them in.  Liz and Noah welcomed the newcomers.

In July of this year (2006), Julie mentioned that Liz was having trouble getting on her bed.  I realized that Liz was almost 14 years old.  Where had the time gone?  As luck would have it, I happened upon a set of steps that would aid Liz in getting on her bed.  Liz had also put on a lot of weight, causing Julie to be concerned about her health. The stairs were nice but Liz never got use to them so Julie had to continue to “boost” her up onto her bed.

Around the first of December of this year, I got a call from Julie saying that Liz had been diagnosed with Cushings disease.  This is common in older dogs and manageable in most cases but the outlook wasn’t good.  Unfortunately, Liz couldn’t fight the disease.  Julie called me on December 15^th saying that Liz had gone to “The Bridge” that morning.  She was in the care of her vet. Julie was on her way to see her but she couldn’t wait.  Liz was buried at the home of Julie’s son.

It’s not often that those of us who do rescue can see and be involved in the lives of those babies we have rescued, for their entire life and as I write this, I release my grief and the tears come.  I cry for Julie and myself and for sweet Noah who has lost as much if not more than we have.  Liz will always live in our hearts.