Dear Lord,

Please keep an eye out for our precious Poppy she has crossed over to the light 6/7/2009.

You can't miss her, she's the one who will wag her little tail so hard her whole rear end will wiggle when she sees you. She will also come stand right next to you and put her head on your lap and stare up at you with the most amazing brown eyes, all the girls will be envious of those lashes. Don't worry she wont drool on you, unless of course you are eating something yummy and the rule is always some for you and some for me. If you don't share, she will tap you and give you her sad face.

Be careful and don't say 'walk' unless you mean to carry through, don't even try to spell it, Poppy will know and once you have said it she will run to her drawer for her jacket and lead. If you are not quick enough to get it out, she will push at the draw until it opens and she will get it out herself and bring it to you.

During the night if she wants to go out she will come to you and tap the bed to let you know, she's a good girl like that. Oh and she sleeps on the bed, right in the middle, in winter she has her own blanket and if she gets really cold she will poke at the blankets until she gets right under them and then she will curl at your feet or just behind your legs. You may even wake up to find her head on your pillow. Please excuse her snoring, she can get quite loud and even if you roll her over, it often gets louder, you will get used to it.

When you are in the shower or in the toilet she likes to sit and wait for you by the door, so don't be surprised to open it and find her there waiting smiling at you. And you should know that if you are having a soak in the bath and you leave the door open she will come in and drink the bath water.

She isn't much of a water dog, but if you are swimming even though she is scared she will want to be with you and will try to get you to come out. She will edge over so carefully but will dart off if you try to coax her in. By the way, if she does get in, she sinks like a brick. This happened once when she slipped and fell in the pool, straight to the bottom she went. Olivia had to jump in and lift her out, Poppy was not amused. This caused her to sulk most of the day.

The not liking water thing is the same with bathing her, not her favourite thing to do but she will stand there very patiently while she has one, all the while itching to get out but being a good girl she will do what you ask of her.

If you take her to the doggy park you have to watch out for all the other dogs, she wants to love and kiss them all, but can get a little bosterious and not every one likes that.

You can't leave her outside at all, ever, she will go out for a wee etc but as soon as she is finished she will be tapping to get back inside, if you aren't quick enough she will leap up and down the door like she has springs on her feet until you let her back in. Oh and don't get mad because if the grass is even just a little bit wet she will pee on the paving, she hates getting her feet wet.

Poppy loves every one, she will get very excited if you have visitors and you may have to run interference for a bit, but then she will settle down after she has sniffed and licked and jumped all over them for a few minutes.

In summer when you have a BBQ she will go to every one, one by one and ask for sausages, her favourite, she loves BBQs and if you are not careful or not looking she will sometimes sneak your meat away, you will know it was her because when you ask her she will tilt her head back and forth with a guilty look that says "who me"?

Poppy deserves to be free of the dreadful lymphoma illness that stole away her sparkle, please Lord hold her in your loving arms and if its ok with you can you send her to meet us when its our time to go to the light, we really miss her and one of our few comforts are our happy memories and the hope we will see her again one day. She was a very good girl, you must have needed her more than us.

We love her very much, she showed us what unconditional love was. We are forever grateful and honoured to have been her family for 6 and a bit years, we wish it could have been longer.

Please ask our Poppy to forgive us for sending her to you, it was the hardest and saddest thing we have ever had to do, but we loved her too much to make her stay when she was getting so unwell.We hope that she heard every loving word we whispered to her as she left and that she felt all of our loving arms around her, holding her as she slipped away.

Poppy's loving family, Karen, Steve and Olivia