Sunday, August 5, 2012

Thank You My Friends

I had decided not to do a post about Jamie but all of your concerned emails and comments (even after I turned off the Comment section off) have made me give it another try.

Most of you only know Bert, because it is Bert’s blog, few of you have noted the little posts or comments about Jamie.  Who is she, why is she so special to my heart, what makes her different to me?

Jamie came to me after my sister had died in 1995.  I didn’t go looking for her, I just came across her one day when I was taking care of my sisters little girl Becky.

Becky fell in love with this puppy and begged me to bring her home.  My sister, her mother had died weeks before and when a little girl asks for something so close after her mother’s passing, it is hard to refuse.  So Jamie came home with us.


My Search and rescue partner McKenna (a beautiful little golden retriever of five years) had died tragically just a week after my sister had died.  I had not been willing to train another dog.  I was through with search work, but I was still training dogs and handlers.   Little Jamie would accompany me on the weekend camping/training exercises.

She loved the mountains, she loved being at my side and I guess she loved searching because one day while I was setting up a two mile track for one of the older dogs, she decided that she should show me how much she had learned while watching.

She took off and covered the two miles at a dead run, with me at a distant stretch behind her.  She didn’t miss a step.  She tracked perfectly and on that day at that time, it was decided that I was not through with active search and rescue work.

For the next twelve years, traveled all over the country on searches or training other groups and doing demonstrations in schools, churches, fairs, etc. for the next.  She was amazing.

She did amazing things.  She was a great great search dog, great companion and great friend.  She was my “Heart Dog”  she is  my “Heart Dog”.


She was awarded the Governors and the Presidential Point of Light award for her work. 
She was respected by everyone she met. 

Her search career was an open field, she tracked, she air-scented, cadaver, water and disaster.  I am not bragging, she really was excellent in every venue. Her ability to scent  discriminate was uncanny. 

She loved me with every part of her being.  When she looked at me, you could see into her soul and I was at the core.  She would have given her life for me and there were times that she saved my life while we were on searches.

She kept me safe, she would detour me from danger. 
She would do anything for me and I for her.   I miss her dearly.  17 years of her at my side and then gone leaves me with a huge emptiness.  

  
It is raining outside on her grave.   
Yet the air smells like new life.  Bert is sitting at my side.
Bert has always had a difficult time playing ball with me.  He doesn’t give up the ball without a fight and more often than not, I have been injured by his enthusiastic reluctance to give in.  Jamie always brought the ball back and put it right in my hand then waited excitedly for me to throw it again.

The day after my sweet Jamie passed, Bert brought the ball to me and put it in my hand.  


(Please understand that I have turned the comments off.  I appreciate all of you and the love you are sending my way.  But I honestly don't think I can handle thinking of her much more for a bit.  Thank you all for your friendship and support.  Blogville is a wonderful place)