Trooper
Trooper was born Aug 11, 1991......A leo as his soon to be mom was. He became a product of a bad divorce, and was the husbands dog. The wife wanting to hurt the husband, took his dog to the pound. Why the man never went looking for his dog is beyond me, but it was my gain.

I used to be on our local Animal Control Advisory Board. One day I had to go to the pound on business. Had NO intention of adopting a dog, already had several. But I saw this dog, our eyes met and he looked at me and said, "lady, if you take me home I'll be the best friend you ever had". He was scheduled to be put down that same day, he is a half lab/half golden retriever but at the time only weighed 60 lbs. He was starving to death because he was in a cage with another dog who wouldn't let him eat. And dogs don't lie, dog is God spelled backwards.

At the time I adopted him, I didn't know all this info on his background. But I did some investigative work and found out his name, and his so called owners name. Not knowing this dog from Adams housecat, he rode in my lap the whole way home.....while I worried my husband would think I was nuts for bringing ANOTHER dog home. To which he did remark, "he's a big one Heidi". So, my 'a&&401e' of a husband (said affectionately) said "put him out back". And I did, but Trooper had other plans, he came to the front door and literally KNOCKED. Well, naturally I brought him in. So, the 'a&&401e' husband said, "put him in the kitchen". Which I did, but Trooper had other plans. So the 'a&&401e' husband said " ok, he can come in the living room", to which Trooper had other plans. So the 'a&&401e' husband said, "dammit he has to sleep on the floor in the bedroom". But Trooper had other plans. And from that day forward, Trooper slept between my 'a&&401e' husband and me on HIS pillow.

He went everywhere with us. Fishing, on the boat, to social events. Even won All American Dog at a fund-raiser for our local humane society. He saved my life from a carjacker. He was true blue, and never told my darkest secrets, always there for me unconditionally. Well, there is only so much space and I could talk about him forever.

He came down with a cancer, got a knot on his shoulder, I thought he had been too rambunctious and slipped on some straw. Took him to the vet for x-rays. They said it looked suspicious and needed to do a biopsy. We had that done and it was a cancer. So, they gave me ONE option, take him to Jax, FL and have the lump removed along with his right front leg. He was 11 at that time, I thought that was too radical for a man of his age. And the surgery would have MAYBE given him another 7 months. So I wouldn't do it. They had him on human morphine. One night it stopped working, was obvious it stopped working. Next day I had to call and tell them to please come to my home and do the deed, which they graciously did. He died April 11 of this yr. I have hardly missed a day of not crying.

My husband says that doggie souls are always recycled and come back to us. I can only hope that is true. I know I will love him forever.

You can also reach this memorial by going to: www.trooperismyheart.com