In 1997 we became involved with NEADS. It is an organization that provides Service Dogs for the deaf,disabled and combat veterans.Puppys are either donated by breeders, or adopted from shelters, and trained for the many tasks they may be required to perform. When the puppies are young, volunteers called "Puppy Raisers" train the puppies for basic tasks like housebreaking, walking calmly on a leash, basic commands, behaving in public situations, ect. When the puppies reach a certain age, around 8 months old they are returned to NEADS for more in-depth training and then placement into a home. We had the privlage of being a puppy raiser for a yellow Lab named Teagan. From the beginning she was an easy dog to teach. Eventually she went back to NEADs to be "fine-tuned" and then placed. A few months later we got a phone call asking us if we would like to take back Teagan. She had flunked her final training. We rushed over to get her, and she has been a beloved member of our family for 14 years. What a great dog she has been. Children could climb all over her, She was a jogging companion for Tom,until her hips got bad,was mother to our bassett hound Talullah, and as Mark once said "her heart was bigger than her body". After a year of incontinence, repeated UTIs, inability to use her hind legs to raise, we made the difficult descision to have her euthanized. The entire family accompanied Teagan for her final trip to the see our veterinarian. There was not a dry eye in the room, as Teagan fell asleep forever. Rest in peace sweet Teagn. There will be no more pain, you can bounce and run around again, and can mother all the other dogs in Dog Heaven.
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