Our beloved Carmenita’s passage

Carmen was one of our canine therapy dogs and canine best friends at Sacred Sanctuary San Diego.  She was a brown and white 48 lb red nose pitbull with greenish marble eyes. She came from a litter of 14 pits and was as cute as a button. We picked her and my friend drove so I could hold her. She threw up all over me in the car and I fell in love with her right there.! “This dog had more heart and soul (DL)”..”she was down with our pack and always ready as back up(LP)”, “she was a true soaring spirit and now her spirit can soar infinitely (dk)”…”you will be missed (MG)”. “She was my favorite! (CC)” Watch over us and check our pack when you can We love you Car Car)

Carmen was first and foremost a top athlete that kept us all in shape and invigorated. She was awarded her canine good citizenship 8 times. She loved agility training, the ocean, hiking, jumping, leaping, climbing trees, chasing, hide n seek cuddling, licking and scouting. She contributed for dog bite prevention, pet therapy, and canine contact.

Carmen had such a high pain tolerance we will never know how much she suffered. But we do know that once she soared over a ten foot hedge and later quietly licked her leg. We then saw there were over 200 cactus stickers in her leg and I took them out one by one and she never whinced. She was very competitive over the kong with Odabear in their oceanic wave leaping  retrieval ritual and she never stopped!!! Ever! Odabear never got mad at her no matter how hard she tried to take his balls and no matter how many times she used him for her pillow.

When she started becoming incontinent we took MRI’s of her spine and xrays and spent 7k on surgery to repair a herniated disc. But that was not it. She had some nerve thing, tumors, infections and at the end, she had little use of her back legs and her front legs were starting to fail. She would cry, sink when she went into the water, and seeming dementia. She wore diapers and developed chronic infections. She could not even keep up or want to get up and go anywhere at the end. She rested comfortably until it was obvious her quality of life was near zero.

Carmenita you are now our angel ..free from your pain and your limited body. I asked you and you said you wanted to go from the hell of that body and into the light. I washed you and held you and kissed you and let you lick my lips while we shared tears. Send love to your soul…Stu, Odabear (her faithful companion of 12 years, Jenny, Maya and Alchemy Devi were with her when she passed today June 15 1:00pm. She was 12 years old. We are burning a blue candle this week for her passage… tell us what your animals mean to you…xox