With immense sadness, we’re sharing that our 2019 alumnus Lucas (formerly Lucious, aka Spinner) has passed away. He was blessed to be adopted by the infamous Parson family (aka Parson Posse) and we share their Jan. 24th tribute to Lucas…
“I shared last week that Lucas’s mast cell cancer had come back with a vengeance. At that time, we thought he might have a month but unfortunately this was the most aggressive tumor I’ve ever seen. By last evening the largest tumor had grown to the size of a small melon in the span of 10 days. The wonderful photographer Bill Reaves had reached out to me about doing a photo shoot with my dogs and we scheduled it for yesterday before we knew it would be Lucas’s last day. Ever since the recurrence of his MCT on Jan 13 we had been taking Lucas on daily walkies that he loved, went for pup cups, cheeseburgers, and chicken tenders and on his last day he had a professional photo shoot. 
Lucas was his usual energetic self yesterday spinning and eating like a champ. Matt and I left at 5:30 to grab a quick dinner and when we got back we knew something was really wrong. Lucas couldn’t sit or lay down, he was shaking, breathing hard, the tumor had grown even more and his gums were white and cold. I was texting with our amazing vet Dr Jackie Price Carter and we wanted to wait til this morning but Jackie said don’t let him struggle. Matt and I sat with Lucas and talked it over and knew it was cruel to let him suffer overnight so we loaded him up and headed to VEG. As usual we were welcomed by the incredible team at VEG who showed us and Lucas such kindness and compassion. They even fixed Lucas a forbidden foods charcuterie board complete with two chocolate chip cookies. Lucas passed so quickly and so peacefully with us talking to him and loving on him the whole time. 
As always, thank you to Southeast GSP Rescue for entrusting me with such special babies. Lukey joined the family in Aug, 2020 at age 10 and had a lot of anxiety issues as his prior life had been terribly unkind but we found what worked for Bukey and did everything we could to give him golden years that were safe and loved and happy. Thank you also to his foster mom, Debbie. You will be missed terribly Lukey Bukey! ”

We start the week off with very sad news… Our 2016 Alumna, Bailee, passed away unexpectedly from an inoperable liver tumor.  She lived a beautiful life with the DeRocher family, and her mom sent us this touching tribute to Bailee:

“Our hearts are broken!  We unexpectedly lost our sweet, crazy, Bailee, shortly before Christmas due to liver cancer. 

She came into the rescue 9 years ago as a bonded pair with Sophie (brown GSP).  We fell in love with both of them immediately and knew they could never be separated, nor would they ever leave our home and we became foster failures.  She loved to hunt in the backyard and would spend hours searching the pool and filters for frogs.  One of her favorite things was to roll the ball in the pool, bark at it until she got it or someone else did and do it all over again.  She loved to tear open her Christmas presents and destroy the toys.  But most of all she loved everyone and everything.  She was a typical Velcro GSP who could never be close enough to you. 

Run free my Sweet Girl! and get all those froggies and butterflies.  We miss you!”

“The two hardest things to say in life are hello for the first time and goodbye for the last.”   Moira Rogers  ​