In Memory of our beloved friends....

Just this side of Heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. 

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food and water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing: they miss someone very special to them; who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. The bright eyes are intent; the eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to break away from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. YOU have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together......."

(~Anonymous)

"...Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you...I loved you so - 'twas Heaven here with you."
---Isla Paschal Richardson

2010 | 2009 |  2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

2010

Jessie

Our beautiful, sweet Jessie went to the bridge on July 21 after a two month battle with cancer. She started showing symptoms in May and what we initially thought was Vestibular Syndrome turned out to be a brain tumor that caused her to lose the ability to stand up and walk.

Jessie came into our family in May of 2006. She was about six years old at that time. We know nothing of her early years, only that she was rescued in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and landed in a shelter in Lake Charles, LA. Golden Beginnings "saved" her at that point, bringing her to Houston and giving her operations on both back legs in spite of the fact that one vet had recommended euthanasia.

We are eternally grateful to this wonderful organization for not giving up on our Jessie, for giving her five more years of life and for giving our family the opportunity to embrace this lovely creature. Hugs go to Margaret and Bruce, Jessie's foster parents who nursed her through the operations and gave her all that good loving before we came into the picture. She loved you back until the end.

It was an honor and privilege to have had Jessie as a member of our family for the past four years. We only pray that we gave her as much joy as she gave us.

Miss you so much our beautiful girl.

Roy, Gaynel, and your Golden brother Jackson
7/24/2010

Lucy (aka Lacy #21)

Dear Golden Friends,
I hope that I am strong enough tonight to share with you the most distressing news. My Lucy, in your books Lacy # 21, died in my arms on March 10, 2010, due to kidney failure.

Writing this note to you, seems to make it official, no matter what I made myself believe, that Lucy is gone, gone ahead of me, across the Rainbow Bridge, like many of my other Four Legged Children and friends. I am so distraught that she is gone. More than likely we all have experienced the loss of a so very much loved being. Oh, I miss you so, Lucy I love you.

Sheri Anderson, at that time president of GBGRR, made Lacy available to us on 7/21/1999. Lucy, as we named her, became the love our lives, as well as Jacque's life, a Golden Retriever we adopted a year earlier. Lucy in return loved Jacque, but the lady that she was, would not be easily persuaded to show her feelings. A face and ear licking, however, showed Jacque how grateful she was for his attention. Both complimented each other in wonderful ways for 10 loving years.

Lucy liked to cuddle with Jacque, patrol our garden by the lake, take long walks in earlier days, sail on a 30' yacht on Corpus Christi Bay, bark at the dolphins we encountered on the bay, and just be the most wonderful companion anybody could wish for. She was loving towards all humans, dogs and cats alike. I strongly believe that I never, in the few years allotted to me, will encounter another loving being like Lucy.

My husband, Dietmar, and I thank GBGRR for the privilege of loving a little girl named Lacy.
Flora Graf
7/8/2010
 

Lilly

It is with a heavy heart that we have to say that our beloved 7 year old Golden Retriever, Lily Ann, has gone on to Rainbow Bridge. Lily was adopted in February of 2005. She was always happy and had a way of making everyone around her happy. It was absolutely impossible not to love her. Lily's favorite things included  swimming, fetching balls, playing with stuffed toys, taking car rides and boat rides, and cuddling. She always greeted every human she encountered with a lick and a smile.

She suddenly stopped wanting to eat in March. Initially, we tested for gas, blockage, and did blood work. All came back normal. When her condition worsened, the vet conducted a barium test followed by exploratory surgery on April 2. He noticed that her liver did not look the way it should have. A few days later, we got the news that a biopsy indicated that Lily had Hepatic Sarcoma, cancer of the liver. Chemo and radiation have not been successful with this type of cancer, so it was off to a holistic vet to try something else. Over the next 5 weeks, Lily's condition seemed to improve... she was not her old self, but she had energy, wanted to play and was still very happy. Unfortunately, the week of May 17th, Lily's condition worsened. She became very lethargic, quit eating completely, and her stomach started to become distended. We were faced with the nightmare of having to consider putting her to sleep. After much thought and conversation, we made the heartbreaking decision to let her go. On May 24, 2010, we held paws with our precious baby until she took her last breath and crossed over to Rainbow Bridge. She is in a much better place now, and we will never forget her loyal, loving personality.

 

Jean and Bob Stolting
Amanda and Scott Ekeland
Jennifer and Scott Nicholas
6/21/2010

 

Sammy

We adopted our beloved Golden Retriever Samson from you in 2000 when he was 8 months old. He was an owner turn in with his "sister" Delilah. Sherri was his foster mom, not sure if she is still around.

Samson was diagnosed with cancer in May at the age of 10. He quietly passed away at home on May 28, 2010 with his people around him. We just want to thank you for blessing us with this wonderful being.

Samson was the epitome of a golden retriever. He was beautiful inside and out. He had a puppy face even at the age of 10, and was the most gentle, caring, kind and loyal soul we have ever known. We have been active in rescue since 2000, and Samson was our doggy ambassador to all the dogs coming in and out of our home. He never met a person or an animal he didn't love. He was also our guard dog, even though he didn't have a mean bone in his body, he barked like a Rottweiler. :) I was going to take him in on Friday to put him down, because I knew it was time, so myself, my son Noah and my husband Jason all said goodbye to him the night before. We have had Samson since Noah was 15 months old, and he is now almost 11. When my son and I woke up Friday morning, he was in our room, dying by his bed on the floor. He knew it was ok to go, and wanted to do it his own way. He also had a talk with our English Bulldog Dawn, who has now taken over his watch dog status. :)

Thank you guys so much for gifting us with this beautiful creature. We will definitely have a hole in our hearts now that he is gone.

Alicia, Jason, Noah and Jonah Ziman
6/11/2010

Butler

l of 2002, he was at that time 4 or 5 years old. He was a big guy yet so sweet and gentle and he quickly learned the skills and aptitudes to become Delta Society certified and become a therapy dog in hospitals. He was tall enough that he could lay his head on a hospital bed and visit with the patient. He made a hit with Golden Beginnings too as he received the most votes for the Christmas photo contest. Remember the wet Golden sitting next to the remnants of a Christmas tree decorated with beach debris. That beach was his favorite as each summer he traveled back to Nantucket with us to hang out. He became very proficient in surfing once he overcame his fear of the Atlantic surf and tides. He really was a special dog who loved riding in the car and traveling and because of that he was known by many and was a great ambassador of Golden Beginnings.

I still laugh when I think of my request for a Golden rescue to be a small female and red in color and was told that the big red male named Butler was the match for me. The cancer that over took him made its move suddenly and fortunately did not cause him great discomfort and he left us with the same dignity that he had when he came into our life. I cannot say enough about him as he was my buddy and I miss him tremendously, even yesterday someone asked about him and remarked about his therapy qualities. Someone’s loss and my gain.

Annie Menz Montgomery Tx
4/20/2010

Molly (aka Punkin)

We’re heartbroken to report that our beautiful, sweet Molly (aka Punkin) who we adopted in September 2007 passed away in our arms this past Sunday morning. She had gotten extremely ill the previous weekend and had to be hospitalized for a high fever, and her liver and spleen were enlarged. We discovered she had out of control diabetes, which had not shown on her most current checkup this past fall, and found out on Saturday that she also had cushing disease. The radiologist did an ultrasound and found her pancreas and adrenal glands both had suspicious nodules, which appeared to be possible cancer. Our vet, Dr. Ping, called early Sunday morning and said that we were losing her and felt we should come immediately. Prior to the past weekend, we had no clue she was so sick…no symptoms.

We miss her terribly. She was so precious. Here is a wonderful picture of her in the backyard by the pool.

4/14/2010
Don & Ila K.
 

Brodie
1998-2010

This is really hard to write, it truly is, but I wanted to write my memorial of dear, sweet Brodie who went to the Bridge on April 10, and whom we all miss so very terribly

We will remember Brodie as a super exuberant boy, loving meeting people all the time and living to run and fetch the tennis ball whenever he had the chance. We gave him the longest runs in the field, swinging the tennis racket to get the ball out there for him, as often as possible. The tennis racket was a fixture in the car, not to be left behind. He was so perfect with his "Come" command, he learned in the field, he ran back faster when he heard it as he knew he would always be rewarded with a treat on that run. He still had puppy in him for most of his life, being excited to meet new people and bouncing around on his walks. He was an easy going foster brother, helping with the short term fosters we took care of and gave us, along with Kyley his older brother, our devoted love of goldens.

He was our best friend and a really fun dog to live with. He was even trotting along on his walk in the morning of his last day, wagging his tail meeting another dog, before he succumbed to the cancer in the evening. We were so very lucky to have had him be part of our lives, and we will always love him.

Christine C. & Brian N. & Brie
4/13/2010

Doc

The Late Doc
by Sheila Gurwitz

It is with a heavy heart that I write to say that Doc crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on Monday evening, March 1st. For those of you that didn’t know, in August he was diagnosed with two brain tumors and underwent 21 radiation treatments by the Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists. The larger tumor was at the bottom of the cerebellum and the smaller one at the base of the brain stem. This caused a 35-45° head tilt and gave him trouble controlling his hind legs/feet. His ‘comfort’ through all of this was his green fleece ‘man’ toy which he dearly loved.

On Valentine’s Day 2004 Doc was adopted by Sandy, an Australian Shepherd/Golden mix, the late Abby, my Golden that made it to 15, and I. His prior owner had passed away. He became a Caring Critters therapy pet in September 2004. He and Sandy each made a couple of CC visits every month to a nursing home and Krause. You may remember Doc as the parking lot greeter at workshops from 2005-2009. Doc and Sandy also visited Grandma and the other residents at her nursing home whenever possible.

When Doc was first adopted he was afraid to go on walks or ride in a car, but soon they became two of his favorite things to do! Like all Golden’s, Doc loved to eat, walk around with a soft toy in his mouth, or play in the water. At home Doc could usually be found with his nose up against the storm door barking at the sighting of a bird, cat, fallen leaf, car or person on the street. He also liked to carry the newspaper around and sometimes took it out through the doggie door and left it in the backyard – I swear he was trying to make me think I was losing my mind. I had to be careful on morning walks that he didn’t pick up people’s newspapers along the way! And let’s not even talk about a Kleenex left within reach…

Doc was extremely afraid of storms and reacted to the change in barometric pressure by climbing into the guest bathtub and trying to ‘dig to China’. Sometimes he tried to dig out so intensely, he tore off his nails and the red streaks made it look like a crime scene. But at nighttime he became an 80+ pound vibrator and wanted only to be under the pillows and my body in bed.

Doc and Sandy were very good sports about sharing their house with all the other dogs I pet sit. During the holidays there were sometimes 6 extras – quite a houseful! Doc liked to fake the others out during mealtime by pretending there’s someone at the door and then would eat all their food when they went to check it out. He also let them know the toys belonged to him and would take fleece toys right out of another dog’s mouth! Beau, a lab mix who used to visit, could hold 3 toys at a time - only to have them all be taken away. Doc definitely had a personality all his own! In addition to his many antics, he will be fondly remembered for the way he’d lie down with both hind legs going straight forward making him look like a turkey (photo above).

He brought so much joy to our life and that of everyone he met during his Caring Critter days. I was thankful for the extra months I had with him after we learned of his brain tumors. I’m so glad I was able to spend so much quality time with him at the end (amen to retirement). Toward the end, his favorite pastime was lying on the floor being loved on while I lay on the couch. We got a lot of this in during the recent Olympics! If I’d stop touching him, he’d lift his head for me to continue.

When it was time to put him down he had his head in my lap for comfort, security and loving.
(A Kleenex please!) My gentle, loving boy went quietly across the bridge to meet his old friends, Abby and Cody and so many others. I had him cremated with his green ‘man’ toy so he’ll forever feel secure. His oak urn is now on my mantle with Abby and Cody’s. Someday, I’ll be cremated with all my great kids who brought so much joy to my life.

I want to thank all of you for your love, support and prayers during his recent illness. He will forever be in my heart and that of Sandy. Now, we’re waiting on Golden Beginnings to find us our next family member because we know this is what Doc would have wanted. So I go from a golden ending to ‘Golden Beginnings’, but I’m happy to wait a very long time to write my next guy’s story…

Sheila Gurwit
3/1/2010

Sunny

Early on I renamed Sunny using a 'u' because of his sunny personality. The thing that amused me most about Sunny was his love of soft toys. He would carry them everywhere and always took one to sleep with. This picture is of Sunny sleeping between the couch and the coffee table with the first 'baby' toy. He would often take the babies outside when he would go to do his thing. If he left one in the middle of the yard I would ask him "Where's your baby?" He would panic and start looking everywhere for the baby he had dropped and go get it and bring it in. He was the most gentle dog I've ever known and I miss him greatly. He was a wonderful companion.

We had spent the last weekend on a road trip. He was a great traveler and was good with any dogs we met in our travels.

I feel like Sunny found me to help me through my grief just when I needed him most and it was my honor to be able to hold him and comfort him as he crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on February 5. I can't thank GBGRR enough for this privilege. I know there will be another dog in my life and I know it will choose me when the time is right.

Debi B.
2/05/2010

Lucky

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of Lucky's passing this past Tuesday, February 2. When I came home from work that day, he wouldn't and couldn't get up. Turns out, he had lost the ability of his brain to communicate with his limbs. The vets think he had a brain tumor and that it directly or indirectly (by causing a seizure) resulted in the damage. So, we had to make the decision to help him cross the Rainbow Bridge knowing
that his legs would work once again on the other side. I am sure he is running freely again like he did in his younger years before he came to Golden Beginnings. I know you have all said how lucky "Lucky" was to have us, but truly we were the ones that were blessed to have him in our lives for the short year and a half he was with us.

Holly V.
2/02/2010

Boomer

On December 26, 2009, Boomer crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. On that day, not only did his family lose a beloved pet, but everyone who knew him felt like they lost a good friend. Although it is impossible to sum Boomer up in a paragraph, I will do my best. Boomer belonged to some friends of ours. They tell everyone that he arrived nine years ago as a small puppy on Christmas Eve as a special delivery from Santa Claus. He never met a person he didn’t instantly love, and likewise, everyone who knew Boomer loved him. He was even deemed the Mayor of the Neighborhood!

Some of his favorite activities were chasing Rocky (squirrels) and tennis balls, swimming, and being with family and friends. Several years ago, the neighbors across the street from Boomer began giving him milkbones. Boomer quickly learned that they kept the box of treats in their garage, so it became his daily mission to keep an eye on that garage door. As soon as the door would raise, Boomer would race across the street for a treat. Often anticipation would get the best of him, and he run up to their kitchen window, stand up and look inside to let them know he wanted a treat!

In the early fall, Boomer began limping. His owners took him to the vet where they discovered he had an aggressive form of bone cancer. Nine years from the time Boomer arrived on Christmas eve, he had to leave us and cross over the Rainbow Bridge. Boomer is the reason we adopted our golden from Golden Beginnings five years ago. He was so loved by our son that we sought to get a dog “just like Boomer.” To honor his life and the love and joy he gave to all he met, Boomer’s human friends and family have decided to donate to Golden Beginnings.

Jennifer G. on behalf of Sue and Gerald W.
1/04/2010