Today is a very sad day

Today mommy received an email from Gingers dad. The time has come for Ginger to go to the Rainbow Bridge. This Thursday, Ginger will say good-bye to her wonderful family. Her dad said she is in tough shape now. He said, "She is in no pain, but is really losing bowel and bladder functions, and has trouble standing up, walking, etc. There are simply too many things wrong to correct. We have consulted with the Veterinarian and she is in agreement with us."

We've really dreaded this day for a long time. I can only imagine what Gingers family is going through, but it really sounds like Ginger is ready to leave this world for now, and go and be young and healthy again at the Bridge until she meets her family agian.

Ginger, we'll never, ever forget you. God bless you precious angel.

We got happy news this week!

In my first diary entry, you'll read all about Ginger. Well, for a while now, Mommy has really been wanting to email Gingers Daddy to see how she's been, but she's been a little scared, cause Ginger is up there in years, and she would have been so sad if Ginger had gone to the Bridge. Well, she finally decided that she just needed to know, so she emailed him.

Guess what? He said that Ginger is doing quite well! She's 16 years old now. He said that she's pretty much blind and totally deaf, but knows her way around the house. She gets at least two walks a day. She is slow to get to her feet and her back legs don't want to work well, but when outside she moves right along. He said that she shows no signs of being near the end of her life!

Nothing has made us happier! Mommy doesn't let a day go by without asking God to bless Ginger. She's very special to us. It seems as though Ginger is making up for all of the lost years of her life. She is truly an amazing girl, and we just love her so much!

Me and Ginger

My favorite toy is my Dalmatian Ginger. See, my Mommy got this magazine one day from an animal sanctuary called
Best Friends. Now, my Mommy always did anything possibe to avoid reading or watching things on TV that have to do with anything bad happening to animals. It's just too hard for her. So she was flipping through this magazine, making sure not to read any of the sad stories or she'd cry.

Well, there was this picture of a man and a woman with a Dalmatian with the face of an angel, named Ginger. The title said, "Journey into the Light." So Mommy coulnd't help but read about this sweet doggie. Plus it sounded like a happy ending.

Well, the story was just awful. It was about a family who got Ginger, and after three years the Mommy and Daddy got divorced. Mommy got the kids and Daddy got Ginger. He must have been a bad Daddy, cause the only reason the kids went to see him was to see Ginger. After a while, they stopped going altogether.

This bad Daddy kept Ginger locked in a crate in a dark basement. This was her life for 10 years! Only feeding her and giving her water sporadically. Then one day, a woman came over and saw Ginger in the basement. Ginger was three quarters blind and totally deaf. The woman saw that the doggie had been neglected and offered to take her. The bad man said, "Sure, I was just waiting for her to die anyway." The woman did the best she could with her, but it was too hard, because Ginger had become deranged from her horrible lifestyle.

So she brought her to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. They did wonders with her. At first she wouldn't let go of her blankie, but after some time, she started to warm up to people and they got her ready for adoption. So a wonderful man and woman adopted her.

Well, this story haunted my Mommy. She knew all about animal abuse, but never realized how much of it went on. And this really hit her hard. She did a web search and got the name and address of the nice people who adopted Ginger and wrote them a letter. She asked if they could email her and let her know how Ginger was doing. Ginger's new Daddy emailed my Mommy and said she was doing great. She's now about 15 years old! Mommy couldn't believe how wonderful these people were. They lost their beloved Dalmatian and were heartbroken, but still went ahead and adopted Ginger even though she wasn't very young and wasn't in the best of health. They didn't seem to worry about being heart broken again. All they cared about was giving Ginger a second chance at life. That's just so admirable!

This whole sad story (with a happy ending) really changed my Mommy's life. She now tries to help abused, neglected and abandoned anmials the best that she can. Also, she plays the lottery every week, and if we win, we're going to open up our own animal sanctuary. That's our dream.

So that was when Mommy searched high and low to find me a toy Dalmation that was safe for doggies to play with, of course. She finally found one and of course I named her Ginger. I love Ginger very much!! When you press her belly, she says, "Arf, Arf, Arf, Arf!.... Arf, Arf, Arf, Arf!