Eva – October, 2011

Our furry little angel Eva went over the Rainbow Bridge last week. She had a cancerous tumor on her spleen that ruptured. Eva was having severe internal bleeding and showed signs of the cancer having spread. We had to make the difficult decision to help her pass.

We adopted Eva a little over 3 years ago shortly after her 6th birthday. During that time Eva brought us more love, joy, affection and happiness than we ever could have imagined. She enriched our lives in so many ways. We are eternally thankful NorCal Boxer Rescue gave Eva a second chance at life. She was a scared dog going through a tough time and just needed someone to reach out and give her a hand.

While Eva did turn out to be our little Angel, like many rescues, it was not easy from the start. She was a little apprehensive and had a pretty tough case of separation anxiety and could not be crate trained. We could not leave her at all without her getting into a little trouble. We worked with her constantly and saw steady improvement. After 1 year we saw very little signs of separation anxiety at all. In the beginning we were lucky enough to have a letter the previous owner had provided NCBR that indicated she may have separation anxiety. Since it was a pretty difficult case we are pretty sure that may have been one reason the former owner chose to give her up. It is a shame because with a little work we were able to turn a 6 year old boxer into a wonderful gal we could trust at home. It is sad to think that someone would give up on such an amazing dog without putting in the work to solve the problems.

Like many other boxer rescues she also had some issues with leash re-activity and did not get along with all dogs but the wonderful walks we had were definitely worth the challenges. I think it is important to note the challenges we had with Eva because she was so wonderful that it made all of those challenges worth it 100 times over. We would give anything to have those challenges back if we could have Eva. In part the work we put in and the fact that she was not a perfect dog made her all the more endearing. We often joked about how the golden retriever crowd was missing out on all the fun of having a challenging dog.

Our angel Eva had an amazing spirit and energy and personality. She truly touched not only our lives, but all of our friends and family as well. She was a lady, a protector, a prankster, a boss, a friend, a good listener, a shrink and workout buddy. She will always be missed and she shall always hold a piece of our hearts.

We are forever thankful to NorCal Boxer Rescue for rescuing our furry little Angel Eva.

~ Phil and Christina