Farewell, Princess Sophie

Sophie was born on October 29, 1997. We lost her to cancer on April 7, 2010. What a horrible disease. After her surgery on March 24, her body slowly started to decline. The last 24 hours were very hard on her. We could tell that she was in great discomfort and was afraid. But, because she is the brave soul that she is, she tried valiantly to hold on. We took her in this morning to let her go from this world but we do think we will see her again in Heaven. Here's why:

1. Colossians 1:20 says that Jesus came to redeem ALL creatures on the earth;
2. We know that God loves animals since they were in the Garden of Eden, and every single species was spared from the flood;
3. Psalm 50 tells us that every animal in the world belongs to the Lord (Ps 50:10-11);
4. Dog is God spelled backwards and they love us unconditionally, as God loves us unconditionally;
5. God is a loving and just God and will surely reward those that are so good on this earth.

Those 5 points together brought us to the conclusion that dogs do indeed go to Heaven. I mean... why would they not? They certainly deserve to go more than many humans do. We have a nice image of God sitting on His throne in Heaven with Jesus on His right side, and a good dog sitting on His left. :)

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Heb 11:1)

But, until we see her again in Heaven, we are holding tightly to the good memories we have had.

We will remember Sophie as one of God's most amazing creatures. Chuck got her for me (Pam) on my 29th birthday. It was January 2, 1998 when she came to live with us. Oh, happy day. She was adorable from the very beginning.




She loved playing fetch with any kind of ball from when she was a pup.






Her registered name is Princess Sophia Adonai Rose. We chose one of the names of God to put in there (Adonai) because we knew she was a blessing for us from the very beginning.





She grew up very fast!



And loved to have her picture taken.







I've had a lot of dogs in my life but never bonded as much as I did with Sophie. She was like my child. We even took her to day care at my mom's when she was little so she didn't have to be alone all day!





She loved to go on adventures with Chuck, David and I.














We hiked with her on the local trails and took her on trips to Mammoth.




Being a Labrador, of course she loved all things linked to the water...









And, whether on the boat, on the lakeshore or on the bank of a river, she LOVED to fish with her dad.









During every trip we went on, she was always happy to pose for the camera.









When we moved up to Northern California, we got Sophie a companion, Jake. At first, she wasn't real big on him but he eventually grew on her. Of course, he was attached to her right away.


Then they both went on adventures with us. We took trips to Lake Tahoe, Union Valley, drove to British Columbia and camped all the way back to CA, including a stop in Yellowstone. We also often took day trips to our local foothills to hike and play.



One of their favorite places to camp is PiPi in the Sierras.




The meadow at PiPi is great to run through since the grass often goes over their heads.






Sophie loved spending time at PiPi; she was always so smiley there...


Of course, we were pretty smiley while we were there with she and Jake as well.





Besides being beautiful, smart, obedient, and amazing, Sophie was just plain cute. She loved all her "babies" and knew them each by name.

Sophie had a good, long, adventure-filled life and she was loved. I don't know that a dog could be loved more than Sophie was.




But she sure deserved it. She gave her love out to everyone so freely. Philippians 4:8 says that we should think about "...whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Whenever we remember our sweet Sophie, those are the qualities that will come to mind. We are forever grateful for the blessing she has been in our lives and we will never forget her. Fare thee well, dear Sophie. We will meet you at the Rainbow Bridge.

Thank you for your prayers and support during this time. They have made losing our Princess a little easier for us.

Very sincerely,

~ Pam and Chuck