We lost Bonita, a sweet, gentle friend, on 9/9/03.

She was an abandoned dog that had roamed the local area for well over a year, surviving as best she could before we befriended her and began feeding her outside our front gate.

After a while she disappeared. Marivi and her sister, Rosa, found her in the shed of an abandoned stone house down by the church - nursing a single puppy. We began taking food to her there while trying to decide what to do about her.

We contacted an animal shelter in Coruña and they took them both away. The shelter itself was already overcrowded so one of the shelter volunteers took Bonita and the puppy into her own apartment temporarily. The lady said she was sure she could find the pup a good home but Bonita might be hard to place because of her age and physical condition.

She was right. She did place the pup but not the adult dog, so we took Bonita into our home. She was in bad condition, with breast tumors and gynecological problems. Our vet in Betanzos recommended an excellent vet in Coruña, who performed the major surgery that restored Bonita to reasonably good health. We enjoyed her company for about two years.

In August, Bonita began limping a little. The vet found no physical cause and suspected that it might be neurological. The limp soon became staggering and we had her hospitalized. The symptoms continued to get worse. She was unable to stand and was bleeding through the nose, sure signs of poisoning.

After an emergency transfusion from the dog of Isaías López, our very kind neighbor, her blood once again could coagulate and the bleeding stopped, but it was too late to prevent a stroke. The vet convinced us to give them (and her) more time, hoping that nature might perform a miracle, but she never recovered. When there was no longer any hope, we sadly had her put down.

Bonita was cremated and we'll bury her ashes here, alongside Paco, Tonio, Dexter and Mattie. We miss her.