Kess and I had a special relationship from the start. She was so full energy and joy that it’s very hard to be grumpy around her. She’s given me so many happy moments, and I feel very fortunate that we were able to afford her amputation surgery to save her life and our friendship. She’s really an amazing dog and her spirit is contagious.

I was really concerned that Kess wouldn’t be the same after her surgery, she’s so brash and bull headed, I thought she might come back from the ordeal timid and unsure of herself. As the anniversary of her amputation has drawn near I’ve though a lot about those first few weeks and what it meant for both Kess and I. I don’t know that I’ll ever have this kind of relationship with a dog again. Of course Kess doesn’t understand all that happened to her, but she does know that when she was hurting bad and just needed someone with her to make her feel safe I was there, and it fundamentally changed our relationship. There’s a deeper level of trust now that was never there before.

We had a wonderful weekend playing flyball. This was the first activity Kess had to stop when her leg started giving her problems, and it’s by far her true passion. She is electified in the flyball ring. As soon as we got on the grounds of the tournament Kess was smiling, and jittering with excitment. She could hardly contain herself when greeting old flyball friends and toppled more than one human with her exhuberant hello! She just had a wonderful day and it really sunk in that Kess had finally come full circle she is the same dog I dropped off at the hospital, just a few pounds lighter. Kess did awesome and her team came in second place. Her fastest time for the day was 5.0 seconds! Only one second slower than her best quadpawd time. They made a special announcment for Kess during awards, and she got a huge round of applause and several folks who had lost dogs to cancer came up to me afterward to tell me how heart warming it was to see her out there running. Once all the excitement wore off Kess was pretty stiff and sore, but she was back to bopping around the house this morning. This will most likely be her last tournament, but I’ll try to find some demos for her to participate in this summer as she was just grinning from ear to ear all day. I couldn’t help but smile everytime I looked at her, she was just so happy all day.