In Memory of my beloved "Diamond".  

He could not have been better named.  His Registered name was "Diamonds R A Girls Best Friend", and GOD KNOWS, HE WAS THIS GIRLS BEST FRIEND!!!   

I bought him from a breeder, as my new boy to show.   He was gorgeous, but I quickly realized that he was going to be different.  He started having seizures when he was 10 weeks old.   They were few and far between, so I went ahead and trained him, and showed him until the seizures became too frequent at 18 months of age.   He loved traveling and showing.  He was the first dog I ever showed, at the Saint Bernard Nationals.  I was SO PROUD of him.  We drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to participate.  He really just loved to do anything that I asked of him.  

We'd swim laps together, he'd greet any newcomers (rescue dogs) to arrive, and he took a special interest in the old dogs, and young dogs.   Had an old girl here, Priscilla, who was a rescue and lived to 13.  They would go out to the pool together, and wander the property.   All the while his eyesight was less and less, with each passing seizure. 

Then, when I got my Cache Retreat puppy, the puppy just gravitated to Diamond, so Diamond raised him.   What a perfect, sweet, kind, gentleman, to raise a nice puppy!
 
Diamond's health continued to plague him, but with medications, and using the pool for therapy, he managed to maintain a very HIGH QUALITY OF LIFE. I threw him a big birthday party when he turned 3, and it's a good thing that I did cause he passed away 2 weeks before his 4th birthday. This dog was SO SPECIAL. He was SO KIND and AMAZING, even considering his compromised health. Never, EVER, did he lash out, or be unkind to any human or animal. He was a Saint, tried and true. 

It's taken me over a year, to even get up the strength to go pick up his remains, if that tells you how deeply I felt his passing.   He got up, that final day, left to go outside, but then turned right and went to the door to my bedroom.  I let him in there, and he and I laid down and took a little nap together for about 2 hours.   After that, when we woke, he could not get up and died right there in my bedroom.   His box that houses his remains, will always have a place, there, on the floor, in my bedroom, where he wanted to be................. my BEST FRIEND...............I learned so much from his epilepsy, and he taught me so much about LIVING each day.  making the best of a lesser situation, and LOVING THOSE YOU CARE ABOUT, FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS.  I am now able to help so many others, when their dogs come to that difficult path.
Diamond, you will be FOREVER a huge part of my heart, and I THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE KINDNESS that you extended to so many, especially in raising my new love, Honor.