I met Karen back in 2005, when I bought my sweet baby boy Nick, a Gordon Setter from her. She was the kind of breeder all dog people hope to find, she did everything right. She took the time to question me thouroughly on my experience with the breed and what I hoped to acomplich with this puppy, and she matched me up with the puppy that best suited me personally.
Karen and I kept in touch, and became friends, although I live in Indiana and she in Virginia. We went to dog shows together, we laughed together. She supported me through the rough times and celebrated with me though the good. She kept Nick’s litter sister, Tori, and we had a friendly competition over who woud finish our dog’s championship first… at this moment, both Nick and Tori have 9 of the required 15 points. We had talked about meeting up at the national specialty show this year.
Yesterday on my way to work, she suddenly popped into my mind, and I thought to myself that we hadn’t talked recently, although I did e mail back and forth with her mom a couple weeks ago, talking about the dogs and how when I send pictures to Karen, she sometimes forgot to forward them to her parents. I promised I would send the pictures to them, too. I decided that I need to call Karen this weekend to catch up on everything.
On my last break at work I was checking my personal e mail. There was a note from a mutual friend (who owns the father of that special litter and a sister) saying she thought I would want to know-Karen had passed away. She had a heart attack over the weekend. Her parents had not seen her dogs outside and came to check up on her, and found her dead. Karen was 54.
I won’t get to make that phone call this weekend. I’ll never hear her laugh over something funny one of our dogs did, I’ll never hear her trash talking me about how Tori was going to finish first. I never got to tell her what her friendship meant to me.
I am going to miss her more than words can begin to say.
So please… if you have a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, pick up the phone and give them a call while you still can.
Thank you for taking time to read this. It is hitting me so much harder than I could have imagined.
I remember when I went to pick Nick up, she really didn’t want to give him up, he had been her favorite from the litter, but she couldn’t keep another male. She carried him to my van, hugging him close and crying. I hugged her and promised to be the best Gordon Setter mommy in the world for him, and it wasn’t until that moment she handed him over to me.
PapSett, it may be too early to be thinking about this - and possibly not logistically feasable for any number of reasons - but do you know if anyone will be picking up the lead to coach Tori towards that championship? You had a friendly rivalry…maybe it would be a great healer for you, Nick and Tori to work it together. Considering your close connection, it could be good for all of you and a nice tribute to Karen. Just a thought…
Realistically, I am pretty sure the lady who owns Nick & Tori’s dad will probably take Tori, she told me this afternoon she has offered to help with the dogs. She has a full litter sister who had her championship finished by 1 year (PHENOMENAL dog!) and has a litter of puppies on the ground out of her right now.
The 2 males are the ones I am most worried about- Nick’s brother Travis was neutered because he had an undescended testicle, and the older male Trooper is quite dog aggressive. Both will be hard to place, and with me having an unneutered male of my own… no way could I bring either of them here.
I intend to call a friend tomorrow. She’s pregnant and been having a rough time at home, and suddenly she’s not responding to texts, IM or email. She practically lives on the internet so her sudden disappearance is odd.* She’s a bit of a drive away but I think a phone call is warranted at least because I’ve been worrying.
*OK she could just be in premature labor but she’s baby-crazy and wouldn’t let something like being in labor stop her from taking photos to upload to Facebook
