our sweet little Polly

Hello again,

I write today with a heavy heart, as our beloved black lab 'Polly' went to heaven this evening. Polly was around 12 yrs. of age and severely arthritic and started to have trouble the past few months with walking, getting up and standing to eat etc... Our vet (our wonderful vet at Firehouse) also suspected cancer in her. Scott and I made the decision to let Polly go while she was still somewhat at ease vs. letting her get worse and suffer or strain through winter with the fear of her falling on ice. It was her time to go.

Polly came to us almost four years ago. Scott was volunteering at the Max Fund Animal Shelter here in Denver and saw her there one day up for adoption. He came home and said 'you got to come see this beautiful black lab, she has the sweetest temperament.' And I thought, 'are you crazy?' We had just bought our first home and started new jobs and it was not the 'time' for a dog. But of course he convinced me to go see her the next day and as soon as I saw her I knew she was ours to love. We were unable to visit with her that day because she was in so much pain from a torn ligament and needed to have surgery. The shelter told us after her surgery we could foster her through her recovery and then once she is well choose to adopt her. Well we never left her side when we took her home the day after the surgery.

We did physical therapy with her and cooked her all her meals for the first 2 yrs. she was with us to reduce the inflammation of her arthritis, which was already severe for an 8 yr. old dog. Polly had an excellent recovery and eventually was able to go for short walks and swim (well we tried to get her to swim) and play in the back yard. Polly's favorite things were snow, rolling and lying in the grass, any treat you wanted to give her, love and cuddles and coming to work with me. Polly went to work with me everyday at the gallery up until my maternity leave, and she would greet all the visitors with a friendly tail wag and smile. Everyone loved her there and all our neighbors at home and work adored her! She will surely be missed by all.

Some of my favorite memories of Polly are; 1. When we took her to Durango, CO for the first time to meet Scotts mom and her 2 labs Brandy and Calley. We took all the dogs to a lake where they could swim and run. We had just had Polly for about 5 or 6 months and she was just starting to fully recover. She was a little weary of other dogs for awhile because of her pain, but that day at the lake she ran in the field with Brandy and Cally playing and looking like a young pup. I will never forget that image of her running, running so fast it scared me, pure freedom! The 2nd image that is a favorite of mine, is one night last year I took Polly for a walk in the snow and went ahead of her to throw something away and when I turned around to look at her, there she was standing in the light of snow with her ears blowing in the wind and the biggest smile on her face, she seemed so happy and content.

Polly went very peacefully and with so so much love, she knew it was her time to go to heaven and be with her brother Larry (our cat who passed in Feb. 2009.) Polly loved all of our cats and tolerated them very well. Our youngest cat Olive took to Polly the most and they would often snuggle, I think Olive is missing Polly already as I just went downstairs and found Olive lying in the exact spot of the rug that Polly was lying on all day today. :( The Collins house will miss her so much!

We were lucky enough to have these great portraits of Polly taken a few weeks ago when the wonderful Heather Gray was here, thank you Heather for capturing the beauty that was Polly, we will treasure these forever and ever.

We love you Polly!!!!! We love you sooooooo much and miss you already, you will be with us forever!