When my husband, Jim passed away, from Cancer on Veteran's Day, 1992 and his dog, "Pooh Bear" got loose and was killed by a car 2 days later, I was devastated and felt like I could no longer cope. I raised horses in Florida and one day in late Nov. my barn manager and I were coming back to the farm when we decided to clean out the back of my pickup and pulled next to a dumpster that Madison County sets beside the road for trash. As we started to put our trash in the dumpster, we heard some whining noises. Looking in the dumpster, we saw 6 baby puppies scrounging around the bottom. My barn manager got into the dumpster and handed the puppies out to me. They were so tiny and mangy and just barely had their eyes open. We immediately took them to the farm and I started cleaning them up and bottle feeding them with milk replacement the Vet gave me. My Vet felt he knew who dumped the puppies, but couldn't prove it. He thought they were Rottweiler/Rhodesian Ridgeback cross. We made them a comfortable bed in the feed room, at the barn, but I noticed the "runt" puppy who was very tiny and very weak, so I kept him in the house with me and named him "Lucky." I cut the tops out of socks and cut holes in them for his legs, to keep him warm. He was totally flea infested. "Lucky" and his siblings, soon blossomed and he became my constant companion. People came by to look at the puppies and when they were old enough, everyone of them had a good home. "Lucky" stayed with me as I felt he had been sent to me to help me deal with the pain of losing my Jim. In 1996, I returned home, to Colorado and "Lucky" came with me. When my grandson was born, "Lucky" protected him as if he was his guardian Angel. Sadly, when "Luck" was 7 years old, I noticed a lump on his gums, in his mouth. I took him to the Vet and they did a biopsy on the lump and it was Malignant. They said they could operate and remove the lump, but it would take half of his jaw and he would only be able to eat soft food. They would do chemo and could not guarantee the Cancer would not come back. I remembered how hard the chemo was on my husband and I swore I would not put "Lucky" through that. I kept him at home until I felt he was failing, then took him to the Vet and had him humanely euthanized. "Lucky" was cremated and his ashes returned to me. He and my husband, Jim are waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge, where we will all cross over together.