"Mr. Archie", "Mr. Toby" and "Miss Jingles" from Fleetwood, Pennsylvania~

Sue,
I was so sorry to hear about Bella. What a difficult time for those that this lovely puppy dog touched. As you know, my Archie is a therapy dog certified through Therapy Dog International and certainly a special bond developes between handler and dog. My heart goes out to Cherie.

Sue, you look wonderful! Living in the Carolinas looks like it agrees with you. Our first and only grandchild is almost 5 months and there is nothing like holding that special child in your arms.

Toby, Archie, and Jingles continue to do well and have returned to running once again in the yard now that the snow is gone. I will work on getting a photo to you.

Please take care of yourself and Mike.

Peace be with you,
Kathy

"Miss Blossom" from Northfield, Vermont~

Hi Sue:

I just read about Cherrie's loss of her dear Bella. My heart sincerely
goes out to her and Bethany.

I hope the rain has moved on, day after day and it become very
cumbersome. Wonderful news of Shannon, we wish her the best!
Congratulations on your new granddaughter Amelia, and then Cheryl will
be gifting you and Mike with another grandbaby,so much to be thankful
for, not to mention your sons giving to their country. I pray you will
keep your website for as long as you can, so many of us find it
comforting and its a way to keep in touch with other great families
who are blessed with a High Calling Cocker!! I think of you and Mike
often Sue. Sending my love and prayers to two wonderful people!!

Blossom is doing very well, she is very healthy and happy. She sends
many hugs and kisses!!

Love,

Tam/Blossom

"Miss Twinkle" from Minneapolis, Minnesota~

Hi Sue! Happy Spring! I hope you and Mike are doing well!
Tim and I are fine, and Twinkle is our little Angel!! She is so beautiful, and we are so proud of her! Our 9-year-old, Lily, just had eye surgery and is having trouble finding her way around. She started off this morning for the woods in the backyard of our home. Tim said: Twinkle, where is Lily? Twinkle turned around, ran to the crest of the woods in front of Lily, circled her and led her back in the right direction toward the back door of our home! That is just one example of what a brilliant little girl she is!!
I have attached a few pictures of her that I took this morning. She is not short on giving kisses either! We just love her so much. She is so precious to us!
I wish, I wish, I wish that I could get another puppy from you. Someday, I am going to want another one. I am hopeful that you can help me, Sue, to find another like Twinkle!

Would love to hear from you. When you have a moment, will you drop me a line and let me know how you are doing?

God's very best to you, Sue, Mike and your family!


Lovingly,
Tim, Rebecca, Twinkle and Lily

"Miss Bella" from Tuckaseegee, North Carolina~

Hi,

Sorry I haven’t written or been in touch but I’ve been in the hospital since JAN. 1, 2014 until last week! But the news I must tell you is tearing my heart out. Our much beloved Bella passed away while I was in the hospital. She and Bethany were getting ready to be boarded at the Vet’s Kennel. She was taken to the vet and while she was there she suddenly developed massive kidney failure. Bella died in Dr. Black’s arms. She called me at once and she was still crying over Bella. She told me there wasn’t a dry eye in the entire office. Bella was much loved by so many people.

We had been offered a position to join the Warren Wilson University’s new program using well trained Therapy Dogs to work with the Faculty, Staff and Students in the stressful day to day experience of University life. We had also been asked to join the Memorial Mission Hospital Therapy Dog team. Bella was becoming well know and well loved.

This email is probably the most difficult I’ve written since the passing of my mother in 2009. Bella helped me so much during that time period! That is how we became a Therapy Dog Team! Right now my tears are falling hard and my heart breaks for such a special dear friend that God brought into my life. I don’t know what I would have done without finding a breeder who love’s God and had such a high standard and quality to her breeding program.

Bethany still look for her big sister and I’ve bought her a new bed, some new toys, and a new car seat along with a few other items to help her through this difficult time. She’s such a comfort to me and I don’t know what I would have done without her!

I know you’re busy with Mike, your own health and family but I want to thank you for being the person that you are. God bless you and your family! I always pray for you and all!

I know I’ll need a name for another excellent breeder of beautiful cockers. I know you probably know someone of your quality and standards. People are asking when I’ll train another Therapy Dog. But, we know it takes a special Dog for the program. But please let me know.

Much love to you and those who have received their Therapy Dog Certificate from those precious High Calling puppies.

Please pray for me and Bethany and much love. Call anytime.

Love,

Cherrie’ and Bethany (I’ll try to get some of our last photos passed along )

Happy St. Patrick's Day to my High Calling Cocker family~

I want to wish you all a very happy St. Patrick's Day! We have had a lot of rain down here in North Carolina. We have a slow moving "storm" that won't be out of here til later in the week. Oh well....not a problem. Just a tad depressing.

I have gotten some very sad news from my friend Cherie' about her beloved "Bella". I will be adding Cherie's email on here soon.

We will be heading to New York in early May for our daughter Shannon's wedding festivities. I am so happy for her, finding the love of her life. :") I've been praying for this for a lot of years. God is good.

Our daughter in law, Rachel had a beautiful baby girl on March 4th and I can't wait to hold her. Her name is Amelia and I'm sure she will be thrilled to meet her Grammy, too! LOL

Our daughter Cheryl is expecting baby #2 and is due in mid September. She lives down here in North Carolina, so we won't be spending much time in New York this summer. We have two ROTC sons who will be attending various Army training, so we will probably be traveling to those graduations. I know one will be Air Assault School at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The other one is some officer leadership school and I don't know yet where that one will take place. But it looks like we'll be doing a lot of road trips again. That is, if we can get them squeezed in between Mike's doctor's appointments.

OK....just so you know...my daughter thinks I'm nuts for spending money to keep up the website and the blog. She doesn't understand. In the past 40 years I have made so many wonderful friends. You are all truly my family and I love you all. Once again, I thank you for giving my dogs such wonderful homes. God bless each and every one of you!

Much love,

Mama Sue

"Miss Emily" and "Mr. Cooper" from Quincy, Massachusetts~

Hi Mama Sue,

Our Mom was so happy to go to your Blog today and find out
that you and Papa Mike are doing well; Mom tends to worry
when she doesn't see new entries on the blog. She did tell us
that after reading your messages, she came to the conclusion that
you and Papa Mike have become the " Two Happy Wanderers." Mom told us
Papa Mike looks rested and that you look beautiful!! She also told
us that retirement agrees with you, but she misses all the new puppy
pictures. Mom keeps telling me that I (Cooper) was your last baby boy
to be spoken for; and am I ever glad to be here.

Emily and I love playing in the snow, and we sure have had a lot of it
this winter. We are expecting 3-6 more inches today - WHAT FUN.
Mom doesn't like driving in the snow, so my appointment with Natasha,
my groomer, was two weeks late. We finally made it to Soapy Dog
yesterday and now she tells me I'm her handsome little boy again.

Just between you and me Mama Sue, I still am quite the "Imp." Getting
into mischief comes very easy to me; if the truth be known, my family
is convinced it's a part of who I am. They love me lots anyway and I
heard Daddy say that life is never dull since I came to live here.

Daddy is listening to the television news which means it is time for
me to jump up on his lap and take a nap. We will write again soon.

Love,

Cooper & Emily

"Mr. Bailey" and his friend "Mr. Jakey" from Indian Harbour Beach, Florida~

Another tough day~

An update on my life and my recent road trips~

Capt. David Martin

We no sooner got back from Myrtle Beach on Thursday, that we got a phone call from our son David. He was successful at Special Forces selection and wondered if we could drive to Fort Bragg to pick him up. So off we went to Fayetteville and back. That was Friday. We had a nice visit with him on Saturday here at home in Monroe, NC. On Sunday, we drove him back to his house outside Savannah, Georgia. We spent the night at the Savannah Gateway, and then decided to "mosey" on down the coast a little ways, to maybe just be able to say we went to Florida. LOL Well, on the way down, Mike decided to look at the map. He knew how much I would love to go to Mississippi to visit our daughter at Keesler Air Force Base. In a moment's time, we made that decision, as Route 10 was coming right up. HAHAHA! Off we went...west! We drove through Florida's panhandle, through Alabama, and right to Biloxi, Mississippi! All places we had never been before! We had a great time, and a wonderful visit with Katie and Jonny. Biloxi was BEAUTIFUL! They have awesome beaches with gorgeous white sand! The next day we decided to go to Louisiana because we had never been there before either. We thought it would be funny to say we were going to New Orleans. Well...wish we had never gone. It was so depressing there. Couldn't get out of there fast enough! We drove up through Jackson, MS, and didn't like that either! Those people drive like lunatics! (LOL) And coming home through Atlanta at rush hour was the WORST idea in the whole world! I was literally shaking at the end of that day. We were never so glad to reach our hotel in Atlanta as we were that night! We loved all the Cracker Barrel restaurants on the trip, and we also loved our Hampton Inns. Would never stay anywhere else. One night on the trip, I tried to save money, and using a travel coupon that we had acquired at a rest stop, we decided to stay at a Days Inn at a place off Rt 10. Well.....hmmmm..... no comment. I couldn't even sit on the bed...we left. It was so dirty, loud banging from other renters, and smelled just awful. Drove another hour or so and found a Hampton Inn. Whew~!!!! Anyway...we are back home, and are so thankful. There truly is no place like home!! Praise God!

Hello to my High Calling Cocker family from Mama Sue~

Just wanted to say "hello" to everyone and let you all know how we're doing. I want to tell you that I am forever grateful to all of you who have one of my cockers. I miss them all so much. Mike and I have gotten affiliated with a doctor down here in North Carolina and are doing our best to take care of ourselves. I have to get Mike in the system at the VA Hospital. Hopefully they will be able to help him.

We took off a couple of weeks ago and drove to Myrtle Beach. It was a little chilly, and not much going on there, but we had never been there before. We only spent one night, but it was good to get away. Here are a few pictures.

More on the next post~

"Miss Bunny" and "Mr. Biscuit" from Harriman, Tennessee~

Good Evening, Susan:


We hope this greeting finds you and your family well.


Bunny turned one year old on February 6th. She has grown into a beautiful little lady and enjoys chasing birds and squirrels in the back yard. Biscuit will be three in June and has a wonderful time every day playing with his little sister.


Fondly,
John, Kay, Bunny, and BIscuit