We got Tink as little puppy in 1998 around the fall, and she was the sweetest little puppy, just sitting and waiting her turn for loving, among the other 15 puppies of the litter. The mother dog was walking nearby watching all the puppies, but the father was in a nearby pen, as he was not friendly with people. At 6 months of age, we took Tink in to get her spayed, and brought her home to watch over her as she healed. She had the run of the house, and never chewed or broke anything. It took a while to get her potty trained, and as she grew older, she liked to stay in the backyard, where we had her Igloo doghouse and all her toys. That was her domain, and where she knew her job was guarding the house. She would come and play with us when we were out there tending the garden or grilling outside.

Tink ran off a couple of times, when she jumped the fence, but the 3rd time, she was returned to us by a vet, when someone turned her into them and they called us by using her tag number. She never ran off again, and for a couple of weeks, she was kind of quiet, as though she may have had a bad experience out in her worldly travels.

Once when Tink was in the house with us and the birds, I had Chance on the arm of my chair with me, and Chance flew down to the floor, right in front of Tink, and Tink just sat there looking at Chance, without even trying to hurt my beautiful baby grey bird. It was then that I knew what a sweet dog that Tink had become. I never trusted them alone, but I knew that I didn't have to worry if Chance took flight again, even though I was always there to supervise them.

Tink got her name from the us calling her Stinker. We would call her Tinker as baby talk, which got shortened to the word Tink. She seemed to like that name, so it stuck.

It was in the Summer of 2000 that we first noticed that Tink had a few dry patches on her ears, and we told the mobile vet when she came to give Tink her yearly shots about it, and she gave us some petroleum jelly type stuff, with insect repellent in it, to put on her ears, to help heal the dry patches, and keep the flies from biting on them. Tink would wipe that off with her paws, and down her face, and before we knew it, she was spreading that all over her face. We took her to a nearby vet, who had us try pills on her, which were some sort of steroid, but they didn't work either. We were at out wits end and worrying about what could be wrong, and why no vet could find out the problem, so we took her to another vet, that my mom who is a poodle groomer, and has her own poodles uses. That was the evening in the fall of 2000 that we didn't know we were saying good-bye to her. The vet called us shortly after we got home, and told us the bad news, and that Tink had an autoimmune deficiency disease, and there was no treatment for it. We loved her enough to let her go, but we always wished we could have said good bye. She is still in my heart and in my thoughts, and I hope she forgives me for all her suffering. She loved to run free in the grass, so I hope she is running free, and healthy now. I love you Tink.

Rose