Remembering Riley

This is one of the saddest days of my life...my heart aches and my eyes flood with tears as I try to cope with the loss of our beloved family dog, Riley. After being diagnosed a year ago with thyroid cancer and learning this past weekend that she had a large tumor on her spleen, my parents had to make one of the hardest decisions in their life and needed to let Riley go.

It's just not fair....11.5 years with her was not long enough.

Riley was a sweet, sweet dog and brought unconditional love and happiness to our family.

I still remember being home my Junior year of college for Spring Break and looking through the classified ads for puppies with my Dad. My mom came down the stairs and asked what we were doing and we quickly replied, "oh, nothing". After a phone call and a few hours later we were off to Hinesville, GA to see about a chocolate lab puppy.

And there she was...this little, itty-bitty thing only a week old - born on March 17th, 1998 (my parents' 25th wedding anniversary). As soon as we saw her we knew right away that she would join our family (I mean, who really, just goes to "look" at a puppy?). So, in May 1998 we got to bring our little St. Patty's Day girl - AKC registered as "Savannah's O'Riley" - home to Beaufort! It didn't take long for her to earn the nickname "Hersey Kisser" - as Little Miss Riley loved to lick and lick and lick!

We loved Riley and she loved us and will miss her more than any of you will ever know! We'll miss seeing those big brown eyes. We'll miss coming through the door and seeing her WHOLE body wagging with happiness that we were home. We'll miss her persistent barks for biscuits. We'll miss chasing her off the porch to potty. We'll miss watching her pacing around at 5 o'clock waiting for her dinner. We'll miss her squeaking her toys and bringing them for us to throw. We'll miss her jumping up into the bed. We'll miss her snoring. We'll miss her endless kisses.

We'll Just Miss Her!!!

We will always love you, Riley!!!