Thought I'd share. This comes from a working golden retriever list I am on:
know that many of the folks in the Lenape GRC took their dogs to visit the kids at Sandy Hook after that horrible event, but I wanted to tell everyone about one of my dogs that went to visit three little girls that attended that school, one of which witnessed her teacher and classmates getting shot. This little girl is a first grader.
Laurie has always written about how special Georgia seems to be. So very sensitive to those around her as well as a real character. In Laurie's own words here is Georgia's visiting day with those Sandy Hook kids:
" I'm actually most proud - and most touched - about Georgia's latest news. It's sometimes hard to express how special Georgia is - my family says she has honey running through her veins, and she literally has people falling all over her wherever we go (which in the past has sometimes been a little inconvenient and takes forever, but I'm realizing this is her gift and I need to be patient and let it happen). To me, this next news says it all. My sister and her boyfriend live nearby, and they usually take care of the dogs when I travel for work. They also had Georgia this fall when she was in heat and Bowie had his freestyle events. My sister and her boyfriend have lived together for years and my sister is a big part of her boyfriend's family - Peter is head over heels about Georgia, and is convinced she's the perfect dog (perfect temperament, perfect behavior, perfect size, perfect color, perfect everything . . . ). I imagine everyone around the country has heard about the awful shooting in Newtown, CT a couple weeks ago. Long story short, my sister's boyfriend's niece was in the first grade at Sandy Hook. She's a very sweet little girl, and she watched her friends and teacher get killed right in front of her. By some miracle, she and a few other classmates were able to run out of the room and to a neighbor's house when the gunman was reloading. She is obviously having a very hard time coping - the stories coming out of that school are heartbreaking, almost nauseating. This poor little girl has an older sister in second grade who heard everything but didn't see it. My sister has been talking to the girls mother, and trying to figure out how to help the girls manage, open up a little, and maybe even smile for a minute. They finally let us know what would help - an afternoon with Georgia, who always makes everybody laugh with her silliness, but is the first to snuggle up on a lap (no matter how tiny the lap). So Georgia is going to Newtown tomorrow, for what I am sure will be the biggest and most important job of her life. And I just learned that another little girl who escaped from the first grade has heard some Georgia stories and has asked to come meet her too. I have to tell you, I burst into tears when they called to ask if Georgia can handle three little girls. Of course she can - she's made for this."
"She was amazing with the Sandy Hook kids. I mean amazing. I had no idea. There were two phases to our visit - first, the girls dressed her up with pink hair bows and pink feather boas and declared her a princess, and Georgia tolerated it all like a champ. Didn't even try to get the bows off. Then the girls built her a "princess castle fort" in their bedroom - basically a big tent that covered most of the room and the bed. Georgia loved it - they spoiled her rotten and really loved her up. I left the room so Georgia would focus on the girls instead of me, but my sister sat in there to supervise. Long story short, after a little while they had Georgia belly up on the bed inside the "fort," girls hugging her from all sides. After two of them fell asleep, the one little first grader who witnessed the horrible events but has been refusing to talk finally started telling Georgia little pieces of what happened to her. My sister couldn't see them but heard it all through the blankets - unbelievable. Georgia stayed motionless under the covers, just listening, for over a half hour - reports later were that she'd occasionally reach over and lick Paige on the face, but otherwise Georgia just stared at Paige and "told her that she loved her. Of course, I'm now fielding requests for more play dates and sleepovers, so we'll have to get down there again soon for another visit. This poor family is really hurting, and it was truly touching to see Georgia ease their pain for a little while."
All the titles in the world don't mean as much as when one of your dogs does something as touching as Georgia has for these little girls. She is truly a great ambassitor of the breed and I couldn't be prouder.To me....this is what breeding is all about.