When "Kitty" was about 5 years old we were visiting my cousins in Pennsylvania and went across the street to see the mother dog and her pups.   When we drove back to Ohio that day I was lying in the backseat of the car with a small female puppy sleeping on my stomach. We named her Sandy.

As usual, Sandy liked my Dad best.  All of our animals always liked Dad and they would all fight to sit with him. Here's a picture of them sitting together.  Not a very lady-like position. She had a great temperment and enjoyed it when my friends were visiting. We were known to have a lot of slumber parties during those days and she would go around kissing everyone that was trying to actually get a little sleep.

Sandy slept on the bed with me. She wasn't supposed to but she would sneak in and when my Mom would open the door in the morning to wake me up, she would be on the floor because we heard the door opening. I think back on that now and laugh - judging from the amount of hair that is in bed with me now - how did we even think that my mother didn't know what was going on? I change the bed now twice a week because of the hair. Kids think they can get away with murder, but we really can't get away with anything. She just never mentioned it to me because it would have upset me. Here's the two of us together (me with my Keith Partridge hairdo).

When Sandy was seven years old we decided we should have her spayed.  I don't know why we never had it done before then and I can't remember why we decided it had to be done. But something wasn't right after the surgery. I called the vet hospital and spoke to the doctor about her not eating.  He said it was normal and I shouldn't worry.  We waited another day but she still wasn't eating so I called again and talked to a different doctor.  He said it sounded like uremic poisoning, but he wouldn't do anything about it because the doctor that had done the surgery was his boss and owned the hospital.  He suggested I seek a second opinion somewhere else.

Boy, if I knew then what I know now I would have really pursued this and sued them for what happened. Yes, she had uremic poisoning and her kidneys were shutting down. No, we couldn't save her. The doctor we took her to tried to help us and we tried to force-feed her babyfood and yogurt over the weekend but it was decided she was in too much pain and it wasn't fair to her.  So when my Dad got home from work that night, they took her to the doctor and released her to Rainbow Bridge.  I was still at work but talked to Mom after they got home and sat in the break room at work and cried.  I still feel bad about what happened.  She had so many years left. Here are a few more pictures of my beautiful baby. I'm sorry honey. We didn't do right by you but I know you still love us and are with Dad now.

When the doctor's office sent me a reminder to bring her in for her shots the next year, I sent it back to them with a note that said they had killed her and I never heard from them again.   Now ignorance doesn't seem like a good enough excuse to me, but it is the only one I have.  I write this in the hopes that it never happens to you and a loved one.  I guess we need to pressure the doctor if we feel there is something really wrong.  Who would know our animals better than we would?  Her birthday was 3/19/66 and she died the end of October, 1973.  I was so lost without her that on the weekend, which was the first part of November, Mom and I went looking for a puppy.  

Sandy went to the birthday party for Sassy being held at Rainbow Bridge and also received this memorial award.

Sandy received this special gift from another Bridge Kid kitty named Bo. Thanks Nancy and Bo for this lovely gift.

Please visit the link below and meet some beautiful faces
waiting patiently for someone to love them as much as you have loved your friend.

Also, please take a moment to sign my guestbook. Thanks.