NANCY

17th June 1999 - 6th April 2001

No matter where I roam, I will return to my English Rose, And no one can ever take that from me

The Jam "English Rose"

Taken From us so suddendly and so unfairly at only 22 months of age.

Nancy was livley little girl, so happy and you would think that she was made of springs the way she loved to bounce around. She was born on the 17th June 1999, part of a litter of 7 puppies, we kept back two and called them Sid and Nancy. Sid has enjoyed reasonable success in the show ring, Nancy didn't do quite so well, but was always expertly handled by our son Jason who loved his Nancy and they shaired a special bond, especially in the show ring. In June 2000, Nancy and her favourite playmate Reggie pushed their game a little too far, the pair of them collided with the stair gate across the kitchen doorway, which came lose and fell - Reggie dived for cover - poor Nancy took the full force of the falling metal gate, the result was a very badly damaged shoulder and the end of her show career.

We had plans to breed with Nancy, the injury recovered well, although she was left with a slight  limp caused through the excessive muscle damage. To help her regain her strength someone suggested we tried hydrotherapy, she began her swimming sessions in February 2001, just a minute to begin with, slowly building on each session until we were at 14 minutes sessions. Nancy was an excellent breather and had no problems coping with the 23 degrees water, she always came out full of beans, strutting her stuff in her special bath robe we had made for her. In the March of that year - 6 weeks away from her coming into season, we began our plans to mate Nancy, she had already been completely xrayed and we just wanted a pre-mate check up, to make sure her leg was strong enough to cope with pregnancy and of course to make sure she was completely healthy, including her heart. When you own bulldogs, you know that hearts can be a weakness but Nancy's sounded good and strong, it's interesting to note that this took place just 3 weeks prior to her death. The vet was very impressed with the muscle tone she had regained since starting hydrotherapy so it was agreed that we would continue her swimming sessions and mate her when she came into season.

On Friday 6th April 2001, we left for her hydrotherapy session as normal, 6 minutes into her session her heart gave up. Nancy died suddendly and instantly, our efforts to revive her were useless.  An autopsy performed that afternoon was inconclusive, revealing a "possible" heart defect but in such a mild form they could not say for sure. It was certainly not detectable through a stethocope. We can only take comfort in the fact that she had not been mated, but it's hard to deal with when they are so young and so apparently healthy. Nancy was full of life and we have to keep reminding ourselves that Nancy died doing something she very much enjoyed and that she certainly knew nothing about her sudden end. Maybe the hardest bit of all is that just the day before she died the local paper ran an article on swimming dogs as a form of excersise - this photo was published of Nancy, a constant reminder of the spot Nancy chose to cross Rainbow Bridge.

Everyone misses her terribly, especially the other dogs who, on the vet's advice, were allowed to say their own goodbyes and attended her funeral where they were allowed to sniff her body and watch her being lowered into her grave alongside Bessie.

Rest in Peace sweet Nancy, you will always be by our sides. You were our special girl, our bridesmaid and Jason's own little dog.

Everybody Hurts ...... Sometimes .....

This Rose Tree is called "Little White Pet" and was given to us by our dear friend Sue following Nancy's death. It sits outside the kennel door so a little part of her is always with the other dogs. Her brother Sid often sits here with her.

Nancy is buried along side Bess at the bottomof the garden and has plants donated by our friends Steve and Carrie and from her "grandma"

Nancy's Show Results

Nancy and Jason in their Junior Handling classes:

Nancy was a bridesmaid at our wedding on 1st January 2000 and stole the show. She wore a blue garter around her neck with a pink ribbon and silver wedding bells.  The blue you can see to the left is a blue flower that matched Katie's (Tania's daughter) who was our other bridesmaid