ILIO

Ilio, our beautiful English Creme “White Golden” Golden Retriever was such a very good dog. We are heartbroken about having to end his suffering and let him go to cross the Rainbow Bridge on September 17, 2017, at the age of 11. He would have been 12 years old on December 2nd. He wasn’t in our life long enough but he will always be in our hearts and our many wonderful memories of him will keep his spirit alive until we see him again.

His name Ilio is the Hawaiian word for dog. He became part of our family in July of 2007 when we were living on Maui. He joined our Goldens, Pog and Mai Tai, and enjoyed a wonderful life in paradise for seven years, until we moved to Portland in July of 2014. By the time we moved to Portland, he was our only fur kid. We couldn’t have made it through our move from Maui to Portland without the love and comfort he gave us when everything about our life changed drastically. His life changed as much as ours did. He had to adapt from his Maui life in a big house on five acres with a lot of grass to roll on and a lot of dirt hole happy places to lie in to his very different Portland life in a small apartment with no grass to roll on and only a 2′ x 3′ dirt/bark area by our patio to dig in to make a dirt hole happy place for himself. All he cared about was that he was with us. His favorite things to do were to lie in his dirt hole happy place by our patio, go on walks to the park with his daddy, and go in the car with us in hopes that the outing would include a visit to a drive-thru where he would get a bowl of ice chips and a snack. No matter what was happening, his tail was always wagging. His unconditional love for us was our lifeline. His purpose in life was to love us and make us happy. He did that every day of the ten years he was our fur kid, even on his last day when he looked lovingly at us and wagged his tail as he was being put to sleep. We hope he understood why we had to say goodbye to him and how much we were going to miss him. We hope he crossed the Rainbow Bridge knowing what a very good dog he was, knowing that he had so well served his purpose of loving us and making us happy, and knowing how much we loved him and will always love him.

Rest in love, sweet Ilio, until we are together again.

A donation was made in ILIO's memory and the memorial was created on October 1, 2017.