Jessie. . . . Where do I start. Her and Cheyenne were born on April 2, 1995 along with 2 boys and 8 other girls. I lost 2 at birth. Jessie was half the size of everyone else, but she had spirit! She couldn't fight to get her share of Mom's milk and within a few hours she was out of the whelping area screaming. I couldn't believe this tiny little thing was wobbling all over all ready!

I fought for the next three weeks to keep her alive. When I was home, she was always under my shirt keeping her warm and I was doing my best to get her to eat. She never got any spots until she was four weeks old, and I was starting to wonder how you told a lemon Dal from liver or black. For the hearing tests, she weighed half of what the biggest puppy did, but the vet said she would be fine. All 10 pups were bilateral hearing! Yeh!

She was the first puppy over the baby gate! Boy, did she make her siblings mad! She was running all over, and they couldn't get to her. She always ended up in my bedroom in this huge dog bed, sleeping soundly. Soon her and one of her sisters found the same home. It was hard to let her go, she and I had connected from the first day she was born. Unfortunately, the two girls started to fight a lot, and the sister was returned to me to find another home for.

Fast forward to her fourth year. Her original Dad and Mom had split up, Dad had kept Jessie, Dad had remarried and a new baby was soon to arrive. Guess what? Jessie couldn't stay any longer. So she came back to me. I was happy to see her, but didn't feel I could keep her permanently. So I was looking for another home for her. I soon discovered that Jessie could jump 5'6" fences! What she didn't jump, she climbed (literally). And if that didn't work, she just dug out! So I was looking for a home that would tie her up when she was outside. It was the only time I have ever wanted to hear that.

About a year later, I gave up finding her the right home. Jess could just stay with me. Then I thought I was making a major move across country and what I thought was the right home came along. It sort of fell into place. The move never materialized and Jess was already gone. There was nothing I could do.

I'm a little active in Rescue and quite frequently check the Petfinder.org website for Dals in the state of Michigan. In February of 2002, to my horror, I found Jessie in the county shelter of where I placed her. I called immediately and was told that she had come in as a stray, with tags, her owners had been notified but had not responded. The shelter had her set up to go into Rescue as soon as she could be released.

I contacted the Rescue and asked for her back. They heartedly agreed. We made arrangements for her to come back to me the following weekend. I ended up getting an e-mail telling me though that she was refusing all food (even hamburger and rice), was hardly drinking and was extremely thin. I immediately made arrangements to get her. When I seen Jessie I called out "Jessie-blue", her nickname, and she came running. I was just as estatic as she was, but then I was fighting the tears. She was nothing but skin and bones. I had brought with me a piece of bread and yogurt, her favorite foods. She immediately gobbled up the piece of bread and drank all of the water I gave her. She wanted more, but we waited to make sure that stayed down. The Rescuer was just as relieved as I was that she was eating. The Rescuer had stopped at McDonald's that morning and bought french fries and Jessie wouldn't eat them either. Jessie weighed 35 lbs when she should weigh 45 lbs.

For the next few weeks I tried putting weight on her and couldn't. A CBC revealed that Jessie has Chronic Renal Failure. When it started, I'll never know. The animal shelter Jessie was at was able to give me her health records since she had tags on. I called the vet that had seen Jessie and he had not diagnosed her with anything unusual and she was normal weight 8 months before this. She had been at the shelter for 2 weeks, so maybe she just never ate which started her system to shut down - I don't know that for sure either. I never called her previous owners, because I knew I could not keep my tongue.

Jessie, March 2002

Sixteen months after her diagnosis of kidney failure, Jess let me know that she was ready to go see her Mom (Sky) and Grandpa (Buddy). With a heavy heart, I let her. I feel Jessie has taught me many lessons. Don't ever give up on a pup, until they give up! When you and a pup connect, don't break that connection! Always check the shelters to make sure that one of yours is not there!

Some people talk about "heart dogs" - Jessie was my "soul dog".

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