Calvin - 10/03/2005

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We rescued Calvin 8yrs ago after meeting with Ursula and seeing all of the dogs that she had brought with her. We chose Calvin, a big fawn male about 2yrs old. He was going to be the dog that would help us get over the loss of Nikki, our 4 yr old flashy fawn female who had passed away while having a cancerous kidney removed a few months earlier. Calvin came home with us and we instantly fell in love with this big couch potato.
Enter Kelly-she came to us from a neighbor that was working for animal control who came over after work to tell us about a brindle female boxer that was at the shelter. I went just to take a look at her and, well, 7 yrs later she's still here. Kelly is the most vocal boxer we ever had.
Now it's Baileys turn- last year I read that BRLA was going to be at the Torrance Petco and decided to go over and see if I could help out in any way. Well when I got there BRLA was just arriving with all the dogs and I was helping to take them out of the van and the volunteers suv's. That's when I met Sparkle- now Bailey- who was a skinny white female with a "hitch in her gitalong"! I spent the morning walking this dog around the adoption area telling myself that we really didn't have the room for a 3rd dog, but after spending all this time together and seeing what a sweetheart this girl was I decided to call the wife who was at work. I made the usual small talk and then blurted out what was happening to me- I had met another boxer and fallen in love again- can I bring her home?? She says "You know me- I don't care if we have 10 of them!"
Haze took care of the paper work and off we go! Since last year Bailey has put on about 10 pounds and her back legs have gotten stronger.
All was going well until a month ago when Calvin started losing weight and was having other health problems. He had severe arthritis in his spine and hind legs, and this past week he was having a real rough time-- would fall over, and couldn't get back up because the back legs were too weak. We let him cross the bridge this morning. We didn't want to let him go, but we couldn't let him suffer either. Hopefully, we'll meet again.
Thank you Boxer Rescue for giving us a true friend.

Jeff & Christy