After almost 5 years with our beautiful Iris, she crossed the rainbow bridge on October 17, 2016. It has taken me 2 years to work up the strength to write her memorial.

When we adopted Iris, she was very skittish. She spent a lot of time with her tail tucked, especially when she heard loud noises. The longer she was with us, the more confident she became! She began to bark, play with her kitty sisters, and open up to become a less anxious dog. She was my special girl, my little shadow.

In May 2016, she seemed to have hurt her back leg. When we took her to the vet, he said it was probably a sprain. She seemed to improve and did not walk with a limp or act like she was in pain. In September, she started to limp again. We took her to a different vet, who ran tests and diagnosed Iris with bone cancer. By the time they found it, it had already metastasized to her lungs. In lieu of chemotherapy treatments, we decided to keep her comfortable and enjoy what time we had left with her. At every meal, there was an extra plate for her and we gave her lots of love with the time we had with her until we felt she would be in too much pain.

We are so thankful to the GSRA for the gift that they gave us. We didn’t have as much time with her as we would’ve wanted, but we are grateful for the time we had with her.