This morning, we lost our beloved Whizz -- our English Labrador Retriever who lost his long and courageous battle with lung cancer. Whizz has brightened our lives since the day we received him in 2001 -- when he arrived in the Bay Area from Devon England.

"Countryways Whizz" was born on July 22, 2000 to Countryways Jewel (mom) and Garendon Captain (dad). Captain was the winner of the 1998 Retriever Championship (Queen Elizabeth herself presented Captain's owner Steven Jolly with the award!).

Whizz was married to Fly Messemer, who was born on September 12, 2002. She was the daughter of Wiscombe Diva (mom) and Shonagar Bantur (dad).

Like his father, Whizz dazzled many with his retrieval skills. People would literally gather on the beach to watch Whizz leap through the air over the water to fetch his retrieval dummy. It was quite literally poetry-in-motion!

Whizz enjoyed a wonderful life with one mission -- to love us unconditionally and bask in the love we bestowed on him. Whizz was (is) a role model for all of us on how to live in the moment, maintain a positive spirit, have impeccable manners (including never begging at the people table, never getting on furniture, and only chewing (but never destroying) on his toys and never my shoes), and not dwell on negatives or hurt feelings. He loved and engaged with people and other dogs. He was a gentle soul, loyal, never complained, and a true athlete.

But what we will remember Whizz best for was his gentle and sweet spirit and how he enriched our lives. As has been said to us, Whizz was a once-in-a-lifetime dog.

I close with 2 quotes in Whizz' honor:

One is from a gift a dear friend gave us when Whizz began the final stage of his illness, "Dogs come into our lives, leave paw prints on our hearts, and we are forever changed."

The other is what I believe Whizz said to us this morning before he shut his eyes for the last time -- ironically, one of our daily scripture readings for this week, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7)

We will miss you sweet Whizz. XO

Debbie and Jim Messemer

Please also visit Fly.