A Memorial Tribute to Madeline

Written by Michael and Alice McKinzey

February 17, 2009
On February 17, 2009 we lost our beloved Madeline. As I write this I can’t even believe that she is gone.

Words can’t describe the sadness that I feel and the emptiness in our home and in our hearts. When I married Michael he had a Dal named Adele. She was "his" dog although I loved her she was still attached more to him. After she passed we were without a dog for about 2 years. In 2005 Michael started looking for another Dal I wasn’t sure that I wanted another dog but the family kind of out voted me. We found Dalmatian Rescue and started searching for the right dog. We attended one of the get togethers and looked at some Dals but none really fit. About 2 weeks later Pati called us on a Friday and said she had a dog in the shelter that needed a place to recover from kennel cough and needed to be picked up that day from the shelter because the dog would be put down that night if no one picked her up. Michael and I talked it over and decided that we would foster the dog for Pati for the 3 weeks or so until the dog recovered and could be adopted out. We drove to Miami to Pati’s house and pulled up in the drive way to find this skinny, sick, and dirty liver white Dalmatian who had just been pardoned from death row. We loaded her up in the car and went home. We got home and I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a doggy bed, As soon as I walked in the door and put the bed on the floor that dog just climbed in that bed and into my heart. From that moment on Madeline was my baby. This "not to thrilled with a dog" woman lost her heart to this beautiful Dal named Madeline. Madeline became the princess of the house. She followed me everywhere, if I went to the bathroom Madeline was right behind me nudging her nose in the door just to make sure I was still there. When I swept the floor she was right behind me all through the house dropping Dal hair right behind. She always had to know where I was. There was never a time when you said her name or even looked at her that her tail wasn’t wagging. She was a gracious hostess to all her visitors including the four-legged ones that came and went as fosters in our home. She welcomed Helen as a permanent fixture in our home and taught her to be a princess too and was her ears because Helen is deaf. Madeline will always be remembered and leaves her legacy of love to us to lend our hearts to another Dal in need. We love you and miss you our sweet Madeline Rose.

Michael and Alice McKinzey