As promised, here is the story of how Beryl went from a big mess, to a gorgeous girl. (see Sunday post for part 1.) I’m hoping for more photos, but for now this is all I have. Here’s Beryl and Bentley.Happy pups indeed. Remember the black mark on Beryl’s nose, her dull coat and bloated body? Well now she is sleek, slim and shiny…

So, here’s how Beryl came to be.

Very sadly and suddenly, back in January 2007, Smoke (who I introduced you to yesterday) died from hemangiosarcoma, an always lethal cancer that is generally asymptomatic until the very end. Poor Smoke died within 24 hours, and Bentley lost it. He stopped eating and went into a deep depression. See, Bentley came to the house as a puppy and Smoke was his big beloved brother. Here they are, the big studs:

So, a call went out to Long Island Golden Retriever Rescue, which had a female 5-year-old (Bent’s age) who needed a home. As Teri says, “We were fearful that Bentley would die without a
sibling.”

What they got was 106 pounds of dog. Maybe that’s not a lot if you own a true beast, but the average female golden retriever weighs just 60.
She also had entropion, with all four eyelids turned in to the eye. She was untreated for hypothyroidism, hence the black bare spots all over. Her ears were infected and she stunk (a result of all of the above).

Well big old Beryl was put on a special green bean diet, got ear drops, and surgery to fix her eyelids. She’s on thyroid pills for life.

One year later, the time it takes to re-grow a coat, her gross old coat has fallen out and been replaced with beautiful new fur. I’ll now let Teri take it away…

“She is completely well and obviously gorgeous. She may be the sweetest dog on the planet.
Bentley and Beryl are inseparable.
Fyi, a beryl is a hexagonal crystal. Emeralds are beryls. I didn’t know that when I named her but I always knew she was a GEM.”