Meeshika loves to keep an eye on his world.
Chloe Clemens was a truly amazing dog with a very cool name. She survived one of the most aggressive cancers a dog can get – Hemangiosarcoma – which is a very aggressive blood cancer common in Golden Retrievers that kills 99.7% of the dogs who get it. Yes, I know, we all think that our dogs are totally amazing, but in Chloe’s case, I’m sure you’ll agree as you read her mind-blowing, heart-warming and interesting story.
She had a rocky start in life with the family that purchased her as a puppy and ‘parked’ her in their back yard for five years on the tornado-ravaged eastern plains in Colorado.
Chloe, her twin sister aka litter mate Molly and a black lab survived many horrible storms until they were ditched by their ‘family’ when they moved to a nicer neighborhood that did not allow outdoor dogs. The three dogs watched their ‘family’ load up a moving truck and drive away without them – they left them behind all alone in the yard.
As horrified as the abandoned dogs were when they watched the moving truck pull away with everyone in it but them, it turned out to be their lucky day as they were saved by the Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies, marking the beginning of a new and much better life.
Their first ‘family’ did one thing right when they abandoned their dogs, they signed a form surrendering them to the Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies. Molly and Chloe were lucky to be rescued by such an awesome rescue organization that finds many great forever homes for abandoned Golden Retrievers and I believe the black lab ended up at the All Breed Rescue. I still can’t understand how anyone can abandon a Golden Retriever but it is more common than you think.
I was volunteering at the Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies, when I brought home Chloe’s twin sister aka litter mate Molly as a foster after she had been adopted and returned for snapping at the other dog in the home she had been adopted to. It was the week before Thanksgiving 2005. The day before Christmas Eve that same year, the rescue asked me if I could foster Chloe while her foster mom visited family over the holidays. Of course, I said yes. I noticed right away how close those two girls were. Not that there wasn’t the occasional disagreement over who got to snuggle up closest to me but they had a very strong and powerful bond.
The day came when Chloe was supposed to go back to her foster mom and on that morning Molly came down with kennel cough. The rescue manager said that Chloe had to stay with me because she was probably contagious . She “had” to stay for at least two weeks, just to make sure that she would not spread the cough to other dogs. What a smart move on Molly’s part to make sure her sis wouldn’t leave. To make a long story short, neither Molly nor Chloe ever left. They had both finally found their forever home.
We had a wonderful life together, at first it was Molly, Chloe and me, and then in 2007 they got a little brother named Meeshika. In 2011 Jenson came to live with us and shortly thereafter Chloe got very sick. Read more about her epic and successful battle with Hemangiosarcoma.
click to watch the video: Jen flipped the fish