September of this year would have made it 12 years that our baby Grace came to live with us. I had just started my Sophomore year in high school, it was just an ordinary day around our house. I had come home from school and little did I know that things were going to change our life that day.

We had been observing a little puppy across the street that the owner had locked out of the backyard,claiming that she had ripped one of his new Dachshund puppies to pieces, which I'm sure wasn't true as I had seen him countless times chase other dogs that he had in his care (other than his precious Dachshunds)with a horse shocker, and I saw him use it a couple of times. We weren't the only ones that saw it, animal control was called but he always seemed to know when to hide things, so nothing was ever done. We had tried to get that poor puppy to come to us, but she was so skittish after all the abuse she suffered that she would run away.

The day that changed our lives, Mom had come home from work and had taken her shoes off, she was relaxing and decided to look out the door and she saw our abusive neighbor pick up that puppy and throw her in the back of his truck. Mom ran out of the house barefooted and across the street. She just knew that he was going to go and dump her to die somewhere. Mom told him that she would take that puppy and he gave the puppy over to her and pretty much told her that he knew she was too weak to live very much longer.

Mom brought her into the backyard and started loving on that puppy. It upset Mom that she was just skin and bone, and that she was so dirty. The puppy was shaking in Mom's arms, all the while my Mom spoke kindly to her. Dad went outside and held that puppy himself, they talked amongst themselves about what to do with her. Something told my sister and I that we needed to keep that puppy, so we convinced our parents to keep her. Mom hadn't wanted a dog, but she said that by the Grace of God she got one. That's how Grace got her name.

She was always loved in this house. She was still skittish when it came to men, but she loved Dad, but she was still scared to be around him for very long, all stemming back to the abuse. She had a way of capturing a person's heart, just because of how gentle she was.

She spent 11 years as the only dog, until my sister adopted a puppy. Grace didn't take it that well at first. It took her a few months to finally accept him. Jack became her companion and partner in crime. She was doing things with Jack that she wouldn't normally do by herself. We had noticed lately that when they weren't being adventurous they were always curled up together. It was sweet.

She never let us know that she was sick, there were a few signs, but those could have been contributed to old age. On Monday of this week it became very evident something was wrong, she wasn't acting her normal self. When Dad looked at her, he knew that she was in pain. She slipped away from us peacefully that morning. It was a very hard day.

We love our little Gracie, even though she is gone, she will always be in our thoughts and in our hearts. We miss you Grace!