Kali's time with us was all too short. There will never be another dog quite like her.

The night we let her go, I wrote to our friends in the dog world:

Many of you never knew her. She wasn’t a show dog, and didn’t do trials. It took 8 weeks to teach her to sit on command, and another 8 weeks to convince her “down” wasn’t beneath her.

She “played” some agility, loved to swim, and chewed our tennis balls to pieces. She “squeaked” when she was happy. Her favorite past-time was “Dunk the flat-coat” at the swimming holes. She had a water entry that resembled a belly splash – and she loved to practice it whenever she could. Her role in our pack was “the enforcer”. She made sure everyone followed the rules, and she disciplined (gently) the dogs who tried to break them. She smacked her lips when she saw her dinner coming. She loved bananas.

She loved puppies and was excellent with our son. She gave piggy-back rides to our kitten.

She had friends at the short-lived SESKOC and at the PAKOC. She was the only agility newf at the Founder’s Day event in PA a few years ago.

She was our first newf.

Adopted at eighteen months of age, on October 16, 1998. On October 16, 2004, we realized something was wrong. Tonight, we said good-bye to our girl -  Tiptop’s Dinah Shore  - or more commonly known as “Kali”. A brief, but aggressive form of cancer took over her body, and it was time to set her spirit free. Randy and I were both there to help her cross the bridge.

We have newfie-sized paw prints left on our hearts.

Good-bye sweet Kali.