KONA

Dear Homeward Bound,

    On my return from vacation from the most beautiful place I had ever been to, the Kona coast on the Big Island of Hawaii, a friend told me about a family whose Goldens had a litter just 7 weeks earlier. I love Golden Retrievers and had two of them in the past, both were males.

    There she was. The others were jumping all around doing the usual happy puppy thing, except for one of those puppies. She just sat there looking at me...as if to say "aren't my brothers and sisters behaving so silly...just like puppies.  She looked so regal and so sure of herself. I picked up that baby, kissed her ever so soft, beautiful and sweet little blonde furry face and I knew she was the one. I just had to take her home.  I loved her and cared for her for the next 14 years and 4 months. Then last August she had a very bad stroke. I nursed her back to health and did everything I could do to get her well. 

    She got along quite well for the next six months until she suffered her second even worse stroke on February 6, 2008. I did everything I could for her.  I even bribed the veterinarian by giving him five hundred dollars to make her whole again, to make her mine again. I was desperate. I would do anything to have her back the way she was. I would have sold my house, my car and all my worldly possessions to have her back the way she was. But it was no use. She could not stand up or walk. She couldn't eat or drink.   I lay halfway in her cage with my legs dangling out on the floor all that night and into the next morning hoping that she would improve, that she would get better, but she couldn't, she didn't.  My best friend and companion of 14 years and 4 months had to leave me now and I wanted to go with her. Please, God, take me, too. Let me go with her, please. I held her and kissed her and nodded to the Vet to do what needed to be done, and when I looked back at her, her big beautiful golden eyes were wide open and staring up at me. She made a faint little sound, hardly audible, but I heard her. I heard her say good-bye. I closed her eyes for her and held her and kissed her and told her how much I loved her. And she was gone.

 I love you Kona. Daddy loves you, Kona. Daddy loves you. I love you Kona girl...forever.

 KONA 1994-2008