Topaze came into my life when she was only 11 months old.
I still remember the day I picked her up from her foster family in the Jura Mountains. She walked toward me so naturally, so trustingly, as if she already knew we were meant to belong to each other.
I thought I was adopting one little dog.
I did not know she would change my entire life.
For 14 years, Topaze gave me joy, tenderness, and a love so pure it became impossible to ignore the suffering of dogs like her. Because of her, I learned about the pain endured by Galgos and Podencos. Because of her, I created the GALGOS association. And because of the path she opened, more than 1,500 dogs in misery found homes.
Topaze was not only my dog.
She was the heart of that mission.
She was gentle with everyone, kind to every animal, and brave in ways that still break me. For two and a half years, she accepted her insulin injections twice a day without complaint. When she became blind, she adapted with quiet courage, finding her way through the house and garden as if nothing could take away her will to live.
Then the cancer came.
A tumor on her liver took her in only two weeks.
She would have turned 15 next March.
Today, her bed is still here. Her toy is still beside her. The house is quiet in a way I was not ready for. Topaze leaves behind more than grief; she leaves behind a life’s work, a legacy of rescued dogs, and a love that changed everything it touched.
Farewell, my beautiful Topaze.
You gave me 14 years of happiness.
You helped save more than 1,500 lives.
And now you leave a silence no one else will ever fill.
