Chauffeureds Molly Beamer, CGC, "Molly"

Although Molly carries the Chauffeured kennel name, she was not bred by Bruce Brown and/or Paul Hardiman of Chauffeured Great Danes. Her mother was a full litter sister to Ch Chauffeureds Dr. Levy Jr. and was bred to BMW Patton by Susan Hussey to produce the litter Molly came from. I acquired Molly from her breeder when she was 18 months old.

Molly worked in obedience, did fairs and parades for the local humane society and was a therapy dog until she was struck with a spinal infection at age 3 ­ before she could complete her CD title. It was a long recovery, but she came through very well although there were still some very distinct signs of the episode on her spinal xray.

There were vertebrae partially eaten away so that the sides facing the disks looked like hooks. There were some partially eaten away with deep pits that hadn't gotten as far to be hook-like yet. Many bone spurs were scattered on vertebrae all through her spinal column. It was remarkable that she could walk at all when looking at these xrays. During this episode, I contacted a local T-Touch trainer who came to my house and taught me this very valuable technique for healing. I used the techniques I learned that day on Molly and several other dogs to benefit a variety of ailments. It truely is a remarkable tool. A year or so later, Molly also participated in a study done by Dr. Eugene Wagner at Ball University using CoEnzyme Q-10 for a period of six months. I noticed a remarkable improvement in her mobility. I continued to give her the Co-Q10 for some time afterward.

The next incident in Molly's life came along one day when I was cleaning her teeth. I noticed one day that although she had a passion for nylabones, her teeth were not as clean as they could be. What was really strange was that on one side of her mouth there was mild tartar but on the other side there was very heavy tartar. I opened her mouth to see what the insides of these teeth looked like and there was a large growth on the lower jaw just behind the right canine.

I took her to the vet and had the growth removed. Both the vet and myself feared the worse, but the lab results came back that it was benign and caused by irritation to the ligament that holds the canine in ­ likely caused by chewing the nylabones! They all went into the garbage that day and I've never used them since. Interestingly though, the vet did xrays of Molly's chest to see if there were any tumors anyplace else and when I saw the xrays, it included part of her dorsal spine where the spondylosis had been. There was NO sign of any damage. Where there were pits, hooks, bone spurs and grey shadows previously, there was now a very normal looking set of vertebra. Did this improvement come from using T-Touch and Co-Enzyme Q10? I have no proof, but I think it did.

Just a few months before her 9th birthday, Molly seemed a little off one Friday afternoon when I arrived home from work. The next day at the vet the bloodwork results were remarkably good for a dane her age. The one symptom that worried us was her accelerated heart rate. She had also lost 16 lbs since her last vet visit some months before. Since I had been out of town on business recently, I noticed a loss in weight over the last week while I had been gone, but was surprised that it was that much.

These were the first signs that anything was wrong with her heart and it didn't look good. I had planned to have her into U.C. Davis first thing Monday morning, but she died in her sleep Sunday night, about 48 hours after her first symptoms appeared.

Molly always loved a good fire. Her ashes are kept in an urn on the hearth.