Broken Dreams

As children bring their broken toys

with tears for us to mend.

I brought my broken dreams to God because he was my friend.

But then instead of leaving him

in peace to work alone, I hung-around and tried to help with ways that were my own. At last I snatched them back and cried,

“How could you be so slow”

“Mychild,” He said “What could I do? You never did let go.”

With Sand Spring Chesapeakes that started back in 2000 we had a lot of dreams in our breeding program. All was going well until 2019 litter with the female we kept (Gertie) to carry on our legacy. She didn’t pass her health clearances so we kept Shank and then she didn’t pass her health clearances, mind you we only had Guilty as our female to breed and she was on her last litter in 2021 then she passed away in 2022. We needed to start over. And you know to start over you need time to wait until your pup is old enough to go through the clearances and titles. We got Cooter to hopefully carry on. She turned two on Feb 21. Feb 25 I took her in for her OFA hips and elbows. Our dreams came to a screeching halt as she was diagnosed with moderate hip dysplasia in one hip. To say I was shocked and heartbroken is an understatement. The Same goes for the breeder we got her from. We didn’t expect this at all. We do the proper clearances, match up the dogs and hope for the best. Genetics is a crap shoot and you do all the right things and sometimes it’s not enough. So for Sand Spring we are collecting pets as Cooter will stay with us because she is a love and her place is now a therapy dog and hunting dog. We will focus on Snapper and hope for the best with her and have her break this unlucky cycle we seem we can’t break free of.

Here’s to not letting go of our dreams and carrying on!