I just wanted to tell BDL that a great dog just died. Cadence has recently been owned and loved by Karen Norteman a BDLer who lives in Maine, and before that by Jody and Terry Workman. With Karen's permission, I am writing a short eulogy for Cadence.
Karen acquired soft, sweet, mellow Cadence from Jody and Terry Workman, 2 BDLers then living in Florida. They found each other via the list. Sweet Cadence was being bossed to distraction by a very dominant roommate, and it was hard on such a mellow dog. So Jody and Terry did the courageous, loving, and hard thing: they found Cadence a good home for him to be happy in. They are to be congratulated for a move that probably cost them a great deal of pain.
Just over a year ago, I believe, Cadence arrived at Karen's where he began to teach his new roomie, a rescue beardie named Duncan (Bryna's uncle) how to play. Duncan and Cadence became great pals, both of them very good for each other, and good for their mom. I have a picture of Cadence laying on Karen's living room floor. He looked so sweet, and when Karen informed me that he had a PT, I said, "well, good grief, it looks as though he plans to wait until you bring the sheep to HIM!"
Then I got to meet Cadence at Camp Gone to The Dogs last summer. What a charmer. With a body as long as a freight car, he loved to run. I saw a terrific picture of 8 year old Cadence going hell-bent-for-leather after the lure on the lure coursing track. He loved to be petted. And in the sheep pen, he clearly had not forgotten what Terry had taught him. I had been wrong, and he did bring the sheep to Karen, *very* nicely.
He went to the Beardie Olympics a few months ago. Like Bryna, as an obedience trained dude, he had problems when his mom actually expected him to run the hay bale jumping contest with Karen on his left, and not on his right, where she was clearly supposed to be. He turned 9 years old a few days ago.
Cadence went to the hospital yesterday (1/1) after he collapsed. Karen and Jody tell me that he had internal bleeding, perhaps due to a rupture related to a just discovered cancerous spleen, although even that is not clear. He died very peacefully this morning at about 4:30 AM. Karen says she can barely talk, but if you wanted to send both her and Jody some email messages, their addresses are respectively, seadog@gwi.net and waytome@aol.com.
Goodbye, Cadence. You were a real sweetie, loved by everyone who met you and hugged you. Hugs to you one last time, and now to Karen, and Jody and Terry, and Duncan, too.
Lynne & Bryna
