Whoopy in Memory

EXCUSE-MOI WHOOPY de la Maison du Garde-Barrière

God's Garden

God looked around His garden and found an empty place.
He then looked down upon the earth and saw your tired face.
He put his arms around you, and lifted you to rest.
God's Garden must be beautiful, He always takes the best.
He knew you were suffering, He knew you were in pain.
He knew that you would never get well on earth again.
He saw the road was getting rough,
And the hills were hard to climb,
So He closed your weary eyelids, and whispered "Peace be thine".
It broke our hearts to lose you, but you didn't go alone,
For part of us went with you, the day God called you Home.

HD 0/0, CSNB clear

May 18, 1999, 8:02 am - May 16, 2009, 4:45 pm
Sire: UGO dit SAMSON de la Morne Plaine (Import from Belgien * black * HD clear * CSNB Carrier)
Dam: Sél. ÖJch. LOULOU dite YAZOO des Cèdres de la Montagne Noire, CGC (Import from France * black * HD 1/0 * CSNB clear * Austrian Junior Champion, Pre-Selected USA, Selected Slovakia, USA and Italy, breeding confirmation France, Austria, Slovakia, USA and Italy * Winners Bitch USA 2000)

Already at the birth of the E litter was born, I decided I would keep one of the females. I chose Whoopy. While she was, in my opinion, "only" the second most beautiful of the litter, it was more important to me that the most beautiful female went to a show and breeder abroad. Ultimately, when Whoopy was fully grown, I decided she wouldn't be used for breeding: she was too tall (still acceptable according to the standard, but not satisfactory for me) and she carried her tail too high, which developed a pronounced hook. I didn't want to find a home for her because it's simply not my style to part with a dog I'd decided to keep just because she wasn't suitable for breeding.

So Whoopy was "just a house dog" and enjoyed her life by doing whatever she liked best. She was a calm dog by nature and preferred the company of other calm people. As long as Apollo was with us, he was her companion because he simply got along best with her. She loved romping around in the garden with huge plush toys (the bigger the better) or using them as cushions in the house. Considering how wildly she shook these toys, they lasted a relatively long time. But if one was ever ruined, a new one had to be found quickly, because Whoopy would be utterly miserable otherwise. It was particularly remarkable that this dog was never sick until the end of April 2009.

When Whoopy was truly grown, she suddenly displayed a dominance towards other large female dogs that I hadn't seen in her before and hadn't suspected. She even tried to dominate her mother, which the latter couldn't and wouldn't accept. To avoid any further conflict between female dogs, Whoopy was from then on kept together with one of my smaller breeds or a male dog in a house and garden area where it was impossible for any conflict to arise between her and another Briard female.

Whoopy had a particularly good relationship with my Yorkshire Terrier, Gizmo. This may have been because this little personality—herself only seven months old when the E-litter was born—was already romping around in the puppies' whelping box from the third week of their lives and happily joined in the puppies' romps and games in the house and garden.

Right up until the last day of her life, you wouldn't have guessed that Whoopy was an elderly lady, because she still shook her plush toys and romped around the garden with them as if she were a young dog. When she took a break, she loved to simply lie in the garden and watch the others.

Suddenly, Whoopy was different than usual, and I knew something was wrong. On April 27, 2009, she had major emergency surgery, and with the efforts of my favorite veterinarians, as well as blood transfusions from my other Briards, Courage and Frizzy (her half-brother), she survived and it seemed she was on the mend. She had a great will to live, she had so much fighting spirit—just like her mother, Yazoo—but she lost her battle almost three weeks after the surgery, just two days before she would have turned 10, only four days after her sister, Raven, passed away in the USA. Far too soon, too suddenly, and unexpectedly. On May 16, 2009, I had to open my arms to let her cross the Rainbow Bridge, where she was surely awaited by her parents, siblings, and friends.

Whoopy, you are missed, and you will always be remembered here, just like the others from here who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge before you. You will always have a place in my heart, and the beautiful memories of you will hopefully give me the strength to one day partially overcome the pain of your sudden, unexpected loss. Thank you, dear Whoopy, for letting me be a part of your life for several years, starting from the day you were born. ......

Whoopy's special success:

• she never had stress being a pet
• she could do whatever she she wanted to - all day long