One day I was petting her and noticed something in her ears. As I looked closed it was something green. I asked the vet about it and he said they were tattoos! They thought she was possibly a hunting dog. Not only did she have tattoos, she rode in the car like a champ, knowing how to lean in to the turns so she didn't fall over, her dew claws were gone, she had a chip in her that was never activated, and looked like she might had puppies. She was a pure bred lab and no one looked for her :-(. I was the fortunate one to have her in my family.

She was so jealous of the other dogs (not aggressive at all) she tried to figure out ways to get her own attention. One thing she did was when we all went to bed. She knew exactly where I slept and laid right in that same spot and wouldn't move. I had to slide her over and pulled the covers over her and we snuggled going to sleep. When I woke up later she was gone and never once woke me up. I don't know how she did it but she was able to do it every time.

When I took her to the vet, she was out and didn't want to get back in the car so she turned into a statue and wouldn't move at all. I had to pick her up as if she were one piece to put her in the car. I couldn't help laughing all the way through getting her in the car. As sweet as she was, she was also a bit stubborn (as noted above)and knew how to play me. When she was spayed, which was very shortly after she joined my family, I had to feed her scrambled eggs by hand to get her to eat.

She was so happy to see me come home, when she wagged her tail it would bang against the wall and she finally ended up with what turned out to be "happy tail". I had never heard of it and the vet explained it to me and we tried very hard to heal it. We ended up bobbing her tail :-( She took it well.

She was also an expensive dog. If you pick something, she had it. She had a reputation at the vet and once, I had to bring her in 3 times in two weeks. The third time when I went to pay, the vet tech was a little confused when she pulled up the bill commenting and wondering if someone changed things in the back computer. She looked up at me, still a bit confused, and said "that will be $14.00". I was flabbergasted but they knew the dog and, well, as my friends say, I put his kids through college with this dog. lol. One more example is: I paid off her tail, which took a little bit, it was quite expensive ($1500), on a Friday. We were playing ball on the patio on Sunday, two days after I paid off her tail, (she would play ball but wouldn't play with other dogs) and all of the sudden she started limping. I though maybe she sprained her her leg or something. I brought her in to the vet and it turned out she tore a ligament in her knee and it would be at least $2500 - $3000 for surgery to fix it. I was devastated and we talked about whether it would heal on its own. He said it would so we had to go that route. (I feel guilty all of a sudden for doing that but I had to......and it did work out OK).

Oddly enough, she did not like cats OR little dogs. She would stare at cats and, again, turned into a statue just staring at it. She was at the vet once (imagine that lol) and they had her in the back for something (I can't remember now) and she was being her happy lab self, until she turned and saw a cat in one of the cages. She froze and didn't move. They came out with her and told me about it, very surprised, and said "she was so focused on that cat that we could have done anything to her and wouldn't even notice." Another good example was when I was walking her once I ran into friends of mine that had a little chihuahua and I kept Holly on one side of the street while they were in the middle of the street. Holly stared at that little dog, completely focused, started shaking and laid down, still staring at the little dog.

I don't want to talk about her getting older. It makes me too sad. I got new floors and after a vestibular attack, she couldn't walk on the floor anymore so I bought lots and lots of area rugs that she could walk on. When she could still look out the window, when I came home, you could see her head turn towards the driveway to see if it was me coming home. Very sweet.

She is so very special to me and brings me to a place where, after about 25 years, I only had one pet, Holly, and now 30 years, I have none. I still have the rugs on the floor and can't even think about picking them up. Her room in the back is also untouched. I only want to think about how much I love her and miss her. She is special beyond words.

Holly, I love you more that anything.