ricochet

U-CDX Starfire's Ricochet UD, RE, OA, OAJ, TDI
9/18/96 -9/2/08
Gone, but not forgotten. I miss you with all my heart ...my little "Evil
Dog "

It is with a very sad heart that I write this email.
This morning at 4:30am Ricochet went over
the rainbow bridge with his family at his side.

For those of you who did not know him that well
Ricochet was an amazing border collie and one
of those once in a life time dogs, "playing with
fire" border collie's. We loved him dearly.
Training and his human family were what he
lived for.

I got Ricky when he was 7 weeks old. I still
remember the drive home from North Carolina
with my little fluff ball. He was so much fun to
wanted more. He was a dominant male who
taught me so much about dog training and I got
Ricky when he was 7 weeks old. I still dominant
dogs. I started training Ricky with Terri when
he was 1 1/2 and we learned a Terri when he
was 1 1/2 and we learned a whole new way of
training together. Ricky, unlike most border
collies loved to heel. When he came out in
Novice his scores were 199.5, 199 or 198's.
He had numerous high in trials and a very
promising career ahead of him. Terri always
called him my "Super Dog" .

But when he was 5 1/2 and just coming out in
Open, we suddenly almost lost him. He had
Addison's Disease and my vet misdiagnosed
him. Luckily on his last breathes I pulled him
out of that office and took him to Dr. Newman
and she new the signs and saved him. I had
my dog back.   But Addison's Disease takes its
tolls. Ricky's adrenal gland did not work and
he would have to take steroid injections every
month and prednizone every day to keep him
alive. He would hopeful live to be 10 or so.

Addison's proved to be a disease we could live
with, but Addison's dogs have a hard time with
heat and stress. The prednizone made him
grumpy and was slowly deteriorating his
muscles. I was able to finish his CDX in AKC
and UKC. He then went on to finish his
NA,NAJ, OA and OAJ before I retired him from
agility with concerns of keeping him sound.
Ricky went on to get his UD. We tried to finish
his UDX and OTCH, but the Addison's was
taking a toll on his body and we made the
tough decision to retire him.

Since he retired, he has had the wonderful life
of leisure. His favorite job being feeding the
horses and goats. He made it his mission in
life to make sure they stayed in control while
we feed. He loved sleeping on Kyle's bed
every night with Kyle and Ricky's Kitty cat ,
Katie , swimming in the pool and pushing his
jolly ball around the yard.   He loved to watch
over Kyle and Kaitlyn, they were "his" kids.

Sunday night he was his normal bouncy self.
Monday morning we woke up to Ricky being
very quiet and those of you that knew him well,
know he never does anything quietly. He had
no interest in food and did not keep down food
or water. We took him to Red Bank and I was
worried that the prednizone had finally starting
shutting his body down.   After all the blood
work it turns out he had a high fever and an
infection of unknown source. We had to leave
him over night. I was more hopeful.   I called at
9pm and he was not doing any better and they
did x-rays....they looked good, but there was
thought that it could be pancreatic, but that test
could not be sent out till morning and them
moved him to ICU. At 2:30am this morning I got
the call that he was not responding to
treatment and getting worse and we all drove
to Red Bank. He got to see his whole family
again and at 4:30am he went over that rainbow
bridge while in my lap. He was gonna be 12 in
two weeks.

I know now, that he is no longer in pain and
that helps. Coming home and hugging the rest
of the gang really helped. Remember to hug
and kiss your buddy today and don't forget that
despite all the dog shows and the training, they
are first and foremost your family. There time
here is too short to worry about whether or not
they can qualify at a dog show. I was happy to
just have Ricky in my life..

I will miss you my little "evil dog" and I know you
will be there waiting for me, over that rainbow
bridge, pushing your jolly ball to me to play.

Ann