Tell me about your favorite dog, past or present

I have a two...I'm afraid I can't choose just one but Ori and Jasmine have been extra special. They are a bit long, I apologize. I tried to just keep it short...but I couldn't say WHY without explaining the whole thing. I did have two others, but I edited to cut them (not delete the text) because it would have made it twice as long as it is now.

Ori - My current eldest Golden Retriever. I can't even say it's because I'm bias and he's still here actually. In 2008, my life kind of hit a few speedbumps. A loss of another dog due to my mother (yeah, there's some no-so-hidden anger for her when it comes to my animals) When I made the decision to look AT puppies (not FOR one) I found his breeder, and they just so happened to have a little arriving in the next week. They asked me for gender and color preferred, I told them "one of the darker coats, male, and if possible, the runt if the runt is a boy" It seems I have a pattern with "unwanteds" and "underdogs". Ori came out ALL three. 10 days before his "gotcha" day...my brother was sent to jail for something he didn't do. His fiancee, was pregnant with their first child. When Ori came home, it gave me a chance to focus my thoughts on something else...something happy. When August of 2009 rolled around, my brother was still in jail, and my nephew was born. Three days after THAT, he was experiencing seizures and was rushed back into hospital...and his three older siblings were taken into foster care. In September 2009, I was given news that my nephew was diagnosed with something we feared...a rare genetic terminal illness called Menkes Disease. They gave him 6 months to a year. I found out before even his father (my brother) did. In December '09 my brother came home just before Christmas, but I didn't get to see him until October '10.

Jasmine - This kind of follows on with Ori, but even she has played her part in my life lately that I can't express it well. In October '10 as some might have read, she was practically placed in my lap. That same month however while my brother was staying, he received a phone call that Carter (my nephew) wasn't expected to see Christmas. He was barely passed his first birthday...which had amazed many already he got that far. The next two months were hell for my family, wondering if he could hold on, whether he'd see just one more Christmas, I held on to my prayers, my childish wishes on stars, any supernatural "wish granter" even freakin' Santa Claus. Most of all, my anticipation of Jasmine coming home. My nephew saw Christmas, and there was that weird feeling of just "knowing" again...it wasn't just Carter defying the expectations again, we were given it because we begged for it. Jasmine came home in January and she was everything I knew and hoped she'd be. She was even housebroken within a month without crate training! In April last year, a smack exact 7 days before Easter, I got *that* phone call. He was 20 months old. I remember the first thing I did after I got up from the floor...begged my step-dad and mom to go down and get me a case of Bacardi Breezers, then as they all but fled out of the door to do just that, I was already letting the dogs back inside and *grabbed* for Jasmine before racing straight to my computer and literally "text" screaming at my best friend to get online...which she didn't for 5 hours. So I had nothing but forums and chatrooms, and Jasmine and Ori beside me with my mom trying not to ask me to stop drinking so fast.

Sorry for the length, really. With the date being so close...it's on all of our minds now so the events with it stick to me. But Jasmine and Ori truly are my rocks. Without them here, I don't know what I would have done these past 3.5 years. It's been a living hell for my family, I think I just needed these two clowns to help me smile at the end of some of the hardest days.