Rainbow Bridge

Randi was a Female Border Collie who was a breeder for the first six years of her life in a puppy mill in southern Missouri.

I got her 6 years ago in February when she was rescued by MoKan Border Collie Rescue. I guess she had been caged outside, producing litters of I’m sure the most beautiful puppies ever! She had no social skills and every time we went outside she could not wait to get back into the house. Never did get over the fear of being left outside no mater how many times I stoked her head and told her she would never be mistreated or left out again.

A full year after she came to live me she still would not walk by a dark car or truck on the street or allow any other man to approach her. Over the next year she finally learned that all people aren’t bad, and most of the neighbors always remarked how far she had come, after they had all given up on her. Most of my pilot friends never understood when I would start bragging about how she took off after a squirrel without thinking about it, or pounced on her Kong toy and threw it up in the air. They would just look at me funny and say isn’t that what “dogs” do?

They just didn’t understand that she never learned how to be a dog. This is what breaks my heart even now. She never destroyed anything in the house even thought she to this day was terrified of thunder and fireworks. Would run jump into the bathtub in the downstairs bathroom and stay until she was ready to come out. All the coaxing in the world would not work. The 4th of July always set us back two weeks or more.

She was the most popular dog in the neighborhood as we walked a lot before she got Chronic Heart Disease last year. She took eleven pills a day 6 in the morning and 5 at night. The diuretics made her have to go out twice each night to pee, but they kept her alive an extra year, so it was well worth it. It got to the point all the neighbors who owned dogs or not would come out to the street to say hello to her every time we passed and tell me what a pretty girl she was. She was truly beautiful both inside and out!

I just buried her next to Rudder who she never met. He passed away a year and a month before I got Randi. I know I need some time to heal from my totally broken heart, but I don’t think I will wait a year this time before I rescue another one.

I hope sharing this with you will help me heal. I know men aren’t supposed to cry over animals and I have been blessed in so many ways but my life has such a gigantic hole in it right now I can’t start to describe it.

Rest in Peace My Sweet Girl

Kim