We said goodbye to our smiling, golden little Sandy today.

I held her in my arms and watched the light go out in her beloved eyes, and thought back to a Christmas Eve years ago when she came to join our family.

She had been chained outside for all of her life, nine years, maybe more, a too small dog house and a wet blanket her only comfort.

I thought of how she trembled and howled and tried to squeeze herself under my bed at night during storms, panting and drooling in her distress, and wondered how many lonely terrifying nights she had endured shivering at the end of her chain, trying to squeeze deeper into her dog house. How slowly time must have passed for this gentle little soul, how endless the days and nights, months and years. Until finally two brave woman took pity on her. Just "ordinary" women, perhaps someone's mother or sister or wife. They took my Sandy's chain off her, and she came home to me, that Christmas Eve four years ago.

She never spent another day or night alone. And she went to her final sleep on her own little pillow surrounded by the people who loved her.

Thousands more just like her die at the end of their chains.

Please, please keep fighting for them.