Memorial for Sydney
12/15/1999-11/29/2010
I knew when, on March 28, 2010 as I told her to “Jump” for the last time, and kissed and stroked her silky, golden head I would probably never see her again. I was settling Sydney into the van that would take her with Scott, her new person to Denver, CO to begin her new life. Yes, my husband, Clif and I spoke of going for a visit, but it seemed unlikely to me. What I didn’t realize then that that seemingly healthy and energetic 10-year-old Seeing Eye dog didn’t have a few good years left as we all had hoped. In fact, there were only six months until hemangiosarcoma would be diagnosed and only two additional months before she would be gone from all of us.
I like to think that perhaps I had imprinted on her as a puppy. When I was training in February, 2000 with Angie, my previous guide, my trainer and I chanced upon a Seeing Eye employee who was holding the new puppy she would be raising (7 or 8 weeks old). We stopped to pet this tiny ball of fluff and serendipitously, I said”Maybe you will be my next guide.” We all agreed that this would be too soon for Angie to retire and we laughed and parted. Little did we know that this tiny golden puppy would grow up to be my next partner.
She was my 4th guide. I had already been training for nearly a week on that Friday, September 7, 2001. The first dog they gave me was a beautiful golden, but she led the class in alert barking. By Thursday evening, I knew I could not take home another barking dog. That was why Angie, my little German shepherd had been retired after only a year and a half. This time, the Director of training went to the class ready dogs from the October string and chose Sydney.
As he brought her to my room, she was a bundle of energy, straining at the leash to be first to arrive. This was a trait that she never lost throughout her career. She was very goal oriented and was always eager to show me that she knew what I wanted.
On this first Friday together, September 7, when the trainer left us alone, she had eyes only for me. There was no pulling at the end of the leash to get out the door. I lay on the floor and she lay down beside me. She rolled on her back and wiggled herself to lie directly against me with her head on my arm. Throughout the training, the trainer said “I love how she looks at you.” When Scott and Michelle called to tell me of her passing, this was also their comment, “There was something about the way that she looked at us.”
Never will I forget training with her when, on 9/11 the tragedy of the World Trade Center happened. We were 35 miles from their, and I was across the United States from my home.
After graduation Sydney accompanied me to work daily until my retirement in 2004. She transitioned into retirement with me and we both saw increased variety in our time together. She was a constant companion at church. When I volunteered at the Juvenile Justice Center as a Life Coach, she was there. When I mentored a young blind student, she started the process of teaching this special girl not to fear dogs.
Travels took us to various states. She was not crazy about car travel at highway speeds, but planes, boats, busses, trains were no concern for this one.
As she approached her tenth birthday, I knew that her working life was coming to a close and I began looking for placement to a new home. Because we were so very close, I knew that I could not bring another dog home and relegate her to 2nd dog status. I began making plans to return for a new dog in April and found a perfect home for her in Colorado. I expected that her new family would have her for at least a few years as she seemed very healthy and energetic. There was no way that we could know that she would be gone in 8 months. Hemangioma is just detected too late for treatment to be of any benefit. Still, she was not in pain and had two good months after the diagnosis was discovered.
She touched many lives during her nearly 11 years and left golden strands of love wherever she went.
http://www.modianolab.org/cancer/cancer_hemangiosarcoma.shtml
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