by Rachael Stone

Created on: November 14, 2008

Sasha had been in my life for 11 years since she was four months old and she had been my best friend. She was what the vet called a real Heinz 57 she was a real mixture she was part Alsation, part Rottweiller and part Labrador! I had cried into her fur on more than one occasion over the years, I had laughed with her and I had laughed at her crazy and sometimes naughty antics. We were two lost souls brought together through violence, for her it was by being an abused and unwanted tiny puppy. For me it was by the boyfriend I had thought loved me, I was just seventeen when I found her and four months pregnant with the son that I was to end up being a single parent with for the next eight years. It was like someone had decided we needed each other and brought us together and we did need each other.

The day I found her she was being beaten by a man that did not want her, I told him to lay off her that I would have her if he just stopped beating her. For the next six hours I stood in the rain coaxing her to come to me, gaining her trust piece by tiny piece. For eleven years from that moment we looked out for each other, we were inseparable and she adored my son. They say that man is dogs best friend and it is true, we went through so much together that I could not possibly tell you everything she was more human than some humans! When I first realised she was ill I took her to the vets apart from her normal injections it was the first time that I had ever had to take her for anything else. They thought she had a tumour in her stomach they had found a mass and they did an ex-ray and treated her for it and said if the medication did not shrink the tumour then they would remove it, no mention of her dying.

I took her home and gave her the medication but over the next few days she became worse and her back legs started giving out on her, she would go out in the garden as she did everyday but when she tried to run up to the gate she could not. I see her now in my minds eye just sitting there in the sun with her face turned upwards, she looked so sad. I remember hearing a voice in my head that said I was going to lose her, you know that rational voice that speaks in the mind and tells you the truth that you do not want to hear. I ignored it I was not going to lose her that could not happen. My birthday was approaching, and my girl just became worse until she could no longer walk. My husband had to carry her out into the garden each day, no easy task because she was a pretty

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