TRIBUTES
DONATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE IN
TRIBUTE TO THE FOLLOWING:
In memory of Marley.
In memory of Casper Yarbrough,
who left us onJune 5th, 2008.
A little man dog with a big man attitude. (Joan Uhlar)
In memory of Bart Uhlar,
the original Easter Beagle.
In memory of Tucker the Dog,
who learned to beachcomb
once placed on a diet.
In Memory of Duke
Duke left us suddenly on September 21st.
His sugar crashed (Duke was diabetic),
and he was rushed to the hospital.
Despite the doctor's best efforts,
Duke could no be revived.
Duke was a good boy, and is missed.
We are sad he is gone, but we are glad
that he had the chance to walk through acres
of grass and play with other dogs
before he passed.
In Memory of Darla
 Darla was 8 or 9 years old when she arrived at BTTR. She was a laid-back, friendly girl who just needed a home.
Darla was being treated for heartworms, when she developed a bad cough. When the vet x-rayed her chest to see what was going on with Darla-girl, she found wide-spread lung cancer.
The vet told us Darla's lung cancer was quite advanced and that she was heading from discomfort into pain, and we had Darla euthanized. She was with Suzy and Chris, who had known her for quite some time, when she died. She was a good dog.
TEDDY
 The one thing we can say that makes us happy is that Teddy had been adopted and loved before he passed away. He was a very loving dog, and he knew what it was like to have his own home before he passed away.
Ellie May
Ellie May was the beloved 12 y.o. beagle of our general manager Rita Phoenix. She passed away on June 29th 2009, after fighting cancer. She is missed.
In memory of Jack:
Jack was a stray (we think a hunting dog left in the woods to care for himself). He showed up during a snow storm in January 2002. He was very thin and weak but loving. We kept him and he became my house dog. He was best friends with everyone, especially my neice and nephew (and all children). He died quickly after the vet discovered he had polycyctic kidney disease. Truly the best dog I've ever had.
My family has had beagles my entire life. I have adopted another since I lost Jack.
. . . Thanks for everything your group does for beagles. They are a special breed and always hold a place in my heart.
-- Amy Howard
In Memory of Maize
 
Maize came to us over a year ago. She was elderly, missing a lot of teeth, almost deaf, and had a permanent slight cough from previous heartworm treatment. Maize never let any of those things faze her a bit. She was a happy, happy little beagle girl. She brought joy and laughter to the people who were fortunate enough to know her for her time with BTTR. She kept up with the other dogs, loved going for walks, and wanted to stay close to people. Maize never met a person or a dog biscuit she didn't like. She would look up at you with that silly toothless grin, ask to go for rides in the car or a walk, and just trot around the fields at the Family Dog Club during open houses. She enjoyed taking a snooze in the afternoon sun, and somehow never failed to hear us call her when it was time to eat dinner.
It is unfortunate that the owner who turned her into a shelter last year didn't continue to care for Maize - it was a privilege to know her. Maize was treated for pneumonia in January, and recovered.... but recently started coughing a lot and had trouble catching her breath. The vet tried, but let us know that Maize was dying... and that if we didn't have the strength to stand by her and ease her way, that her passing was going to be very hard for her -- because she would slowly suffocate. We could not let that happen to Maize.
Maize may have been discarded by her original owner, but she was loved this past year, and Maize did not walk that final path alone. BTTR was able to give her a peaceful passing in the arms of someone who loved her. Maize has lived in the homes of several loving foster families, most recently with Richard and Caredwyn Harris. We cannot thank them enough for fostering and loving Maize.
Maize died on March 16, 2010.
We miss our Maize girl.
Rest in peace, little friend.
In Memory of Ellie
 
Ellie came to BTTR as an owner surrender in September 2010. She had a growth on her leg when she arrived. Unfortunately, it was cancer, and had spread past the area of the growth. A loving couple chose to adopt Ellie despite her age and need for treatment, just the week before her surgery. Ellie had complications from the surgical attempt to remove her cancer as well. She was with people who loved her at the end, and went peacefully, as her new mom and dad petted her.
Rest in Peace, Ellie girl.
In Memory of Sam
I first saw Sam at the SPCA, where I'd gone with my two little boys to pick out a dog. We saw a half-grown lab looking mix in one of the upper crates and asked to have a look at him. He was timid and emaciated and hiding in the back of his crate. When the staff member opened the crate door and I leaned over to say hi, he took the opportunity to leap onto my back, run down it and head down the corridor between kennel runs and crates. He didn't get more than a step or two before he was collared. We got to know him a little better in a small room, and decided to adopt him. He was skin and bones. When I saw his paperwork, he'd been an owner surrender that day. They wrote that they were giving him up because he ate too much. We were able to pick him up as soon as he'd been neutered. His name at that time was Sampson. "Sampson" was a little too bold a name for such a timid boy, and we promptly cut it down to "Sam" -- and that evolved over the years to "Sam," "Samwise," Sammy," "SamDog", "Sammus Doggus," and so on and so on. Within a week or two of his adoption, one of our little lab mix's ears began to stand straight up... the second ear sprang to attention about a week later. Sam turned out to be a beautiful black and tan shepherd mix with long hair that shed prodigiously over the years.
 Sam followed our older dog Odie around as if she were his mama. Even when he shot past her in size and her head came to his shoulder, Odie could boss Sam around. He was afraid of water, but followed his beloved Odie out into bodies of water repeatedly, until he decided that he, too, loved the water. Sam used to jump off the diving board into our backyard pool. You could not keep him out of the pool on a hot summer day. If I left the hottub cover off during the winter, I was likely to find him sitting in the hottub with his eyes at half mast. Sam was the only dog that I've had who enjoyed eye contact. Ever since he first came into my life, we'd face one another nose to nose, with our foreheads touching, looking into one another's eyes while I talked to him and told him what a good boy he was. He came to associate that with the comfort of petting and praise, and would sometimes come to me and push his forehead up against mine when he was anxious or worried about something like thunder (when he wasn't chasing storms away by just barking at them). Sam stayed glued to my side during my stem cell transplant, and spent a lot of time lying on the bed with me. He gave me great comfort -- it was if he knew I was sick and he had to be calm when with me. I couldn't walk or run with him for some time after that, and made up for it by driving my truck up and down our street, with Sam running down the road in front of me. He *LOVED* doing that. I clocked him at over 20 mph for the 3 block race in each direction. It was a terribly dangerous and stupid activity to teach the damn dog, and he hounded me (pun intended) every time he was in the truck and we got within a block or two of the house, to let him get out of the vehicle and race me home. I had to stop, because of safety issues, but Sam agitated to be let out of the vehicle for at least a year or two after that.
Sam loved paper. Don't know what he was missing in his diet or what was going on in that long-nosed head of his, but he loved chewing paper products.... books, magazines, tax returns, toilet paper, bills, paper towels, cardboard toilet paper rolls and cash. That's right. United States currency. Over the years I have repeatedly thought I lost some of my cash. About a year ago I woke up to hear rustling beside my bed. When I turned on the light, I saw Sam pulling a five dollar bill out of my wallet, which was on my nightstand. I conducted experiments by placing several types of paper products in a row a number of times... each time I did this - I rearranged the objects. Sam always went for the cash first. I had to start putting my wallet up on a highboy dresser at night. I still wonder how much of my cash was pooped out in the backyard by Sam over the years.
 The boy really did adore paper products. Sam always followed me into the "petting room." He would lie down while I took a shower, rearranging the bath mat into a wad that he enjoyed lying on...occasionally sticking his head into the shower to try to figure out where the water was coming from...soaking himself and the floor in the process. Sometimes, if I had left the bathroom door open or if I was just getting out of the shower, I would catch Sam with one end of the toilet paper in his mouth -- chewing it down like the world's longest 2-ply spaghetti noodle.
Sam died in my arms last night. He was almost 15 years old, and health issues caught up to him. He had a couple of months left in him, left to die naturally -- but he was hurting, and losing control over his back legs and occasionally his bladder. I could put up with cleaning pee off the floor forever for my SamDog... but hearing him whine at night and seeing him struggle to stand... and knowing his prognosis to be grim and to include increasing pain... I stood by Sam during his death like he stood by me during his life. He died with me holding him and telling him he was the best dog ever, and that I'd see him again later.
Rest easy, old boy. You're home.
In memory of Abby Blue
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