COACH

JANUARY 18,2000

The slumber party is over in my kitchen.
I just finished washing and drying the last of the quilts and packing them away for another time.
Coach died today.
When I thought I was going to loss her 1 1/2 years ago to LP I was so very scared.
She was my first dog and an over achiever at that.
She had to do everything her way and large. All her titles and awards will tell you that.
I met more people because of her and her talents.
And she helped save a life.
Nothing too flashy....she just bent my storm door trying to get out.
When I went to see what was causing her such excitement....I found a man on the ground at my neighbor's house. He had gotten his leg caught in a stump grinder and it had destroyed most of his leg. I was able to apply a tourniquet.....and control the bleeding enough to have the Medivac helicopter land in the nearby school yard and rush him to
Shock/Trauma at the University of MD.
She was a very special dog.
When I did Lab Rescue we had a dog come in with a very similar temperament to hers.
Hannibal was a handful to say the least.
We had the name of a guy that trained drug, bomb and arson detection dogs, and a lot of people were having him come to evaluate dogs for his use. He was tired I guess of going and finding just lovey labs. He was interested in the all out crazy ones.
He wanted them to have no fear of anything.
I thought Hannibal would fit his needs nicely and probably drive some family out of there minds.
So I called. He droned on about what he needed in the dog and was I sure I knew what
I was looking at. I assured him I did.
I told him he could meet Coach and see that I knew exactly what he was looking for.
He came and I showed him that I could train Coach, because of her background, to detect an accelerant in 15 minutes. I trained her to find a type of explosive in less time then that.
He nearly lost his jaw.
I had him hide something and I had her find it and take it inside the house and put it where ever he wanted. He chose the table. I gave her the commands and she f
and then did what I had told her.
She had quite a vocabulary...
and she could understand a string of commands which is unheard of.
Of course you had to understand it was her choice to do what you asked!
He offered me a ton of money for her on the spot.
I laughed and said of course not she was my pet.
He even brought men in black Suburbans to see her....with the same result.
I couldn't part with her then.....and I'm having real trouble parting with her now.
She never really gave up......I had to do that for her.
She didn't need to prove to me she could hang on and withstand anything
just so I could hold her and pet her.
I had to let her go...... she couldn't stand or walk,
her eyes were doing very strange things and she was having trouble swallowing....
but she still tried to do all those things...
I can say her tail still could thump once.
I guess I should stop....I don't want to be to morbid.
I just want to say that I miss her terribly.
Karen