We adopted our little black beauty named Stella on 2/28/14. She came to us literally on the day of our 16th wedding anniversary and there is never going to be another present to top it. When we first got her, she was a shy, scared, timid little thing that would jump at her own shadow. She learned quickly that she was in her furever home and she knew nothing but unconditional love and joy. She adapted so quickly to our active lifestyle with hiking, swimming, snowshoeing and she loved trips to Home Depot with her Daddy. And true to her Lab roots, she loved snow and water – any kind of water. More than once on a trail, we had people comment that they had never seen such a joyful dog.
We did the math and she was in the 20K mile range with us by the time she crossed the Rainbow Bridge on 4/15/25. In fact, when she was young (2-3 years old) and I was in my early 50s, we smoked and I mean SMOKED a group of guys that were only in their late 20s/early 30s hiking up the intense 3 mile uphill all the way Wheeler Lake Trail outside Copper Mountain. We made the hike in 57 minutes and we were playing in the lake for almost 30 minutes before the first guy in the group even topped the trail and then promptly collapsed. She got tons of extra hugs and treats that day. I have attached a picture of her that shows her typical grin after a great hiking day. . . this one was from Dawson Butte just outside Larkspur in DougCo. We did the almost 6 mile hike in an hour and 30 minutes – no joke! And she was the world’s best snuggler. . . there was nothing that made us feel better after a long day than sharing her deep hugs and cuddles.
She will be more deeply missed than she can ever know and there will never be another one like her. Our hearts are absolutely broken.