Dakota's Story:

In May, 2007, we recieved word that our brand new puppy, Dakota, has diabetes. Dakota just turned 3 months old and is 3/4 Golden Retriever and 1/4 Chesapeake Bay Retriever. She is absolutely beautiful, with a reddish hue on her nose and ears and her body becoming more golden as it goes back to her tail. It was just at the end of April 2007 that we finally got this little lady after a long anticipated wait. My 6 year old daughter was thrilled and our 1 year old son couldn't get enough of this creature that was smaller than him! She is surely an asset to our growing family! 

I was very hesitant about getting a new puppy, I am afterall 6 months pregnant, but after she came home, I could not help but fall totally in love with this little girl. It was after a couple days that we realized something was wrong though. Dakota was very, very tired all the time, she drank a lot, and urinated in her sleep, even though she has been doing well "going" outside. We never thought it was something to this extent. When we found out she had diabetes, I cried all day. I just knew we would never be able to finance this, and the only other option was to put her to sleep. I was doing some research on the internet and ran into the Muffin website, and it was very encouraging to see that this is not a death sentence and that so many others are going through the same thing. 

Dakota has been such a blessing to our home. She loves my children and is such a good little pup with a demeanor as sweet as sugar, it would be a shame and a loss to lose her.