You can tell a lot about people by the kind of dogs they keep, and Lora Bauer Brashears had some of the nicest dogs I've ever met. You can tell a lot about people by the company they keep, and Lora has many longtime friends who are loyal and loving and so very supportive.

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Her circle of friends and fans grew on an almost daily basis, for to know Lora was to love her. She extended help and friendship to veritable strangers, including me.

Search for her name in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette archives or in the Google search engine and you will get dozens of "hits," for Lora Bauer Brashears was very big in dog circles. She was manager, for many years, at An Inn on Rippling Run, a boarding kennel in Franklin Park. She had worked at animal shelters and as a groomer and veterinary technician.

Her passion was her hobby, which was breeding, training and showing dogs under her Hartagold kennel name. Her dogs were champions in the conformation ring and earned multiple titles in obedience trials and agility competitions. They visited hospitals, nursing homes and schools because they are certified therapy dogs.

		On the Internet Go to www.hartagold.com for further information and for pictures of Lora and her dogs.

Her dogs were American pit bull terriers and American Staffordshire terriers, and she spent an incredible amount of time lobbying elected officials who hate and fear those breeds. She taught people there are bad dogs, but no bad breeds. She was frequently able to persuade officials to draft laws that go after owners of dogs, regardless of their breed, that have bitten and attacked, rather than outlawing entire breeds.

She donated time to "rescue," finding homes for dozens of pit bulls that would have been euthanized.

Lora Bauer Brashears, of Ambridge, died Sept. 26, three months after her 40th birthday and 18 years after doctors told her she had six months to live. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis destroyed her lungs but never destroyed her will to live.

Friends and relatives gathered Saturday, not to mourn her death but to celebrate her life. Her husband, Tim Brashears, brought "her" dogs, which have been "their" dogs since Tim and Lora's August 2005 wedding.

Her mother, Judy Hollern, of Altoona, brought photographs from every stage of her life.

The service was held at the Radisson in Monroeville, because that hotel let the dogs in.

There were few tears, because Lora wouldn't have liked that. There were cheers and applause as Hartagold dogs named MeMe, Presley and Zoomie went through their paces in a mini show ring. Lora would have loved that.

I met Lora in 1995 at an agility demonstration. Over the years, she taught me so much about dogs in general and pit bulls in particular. She was my "go-to" person on so many stories and columns.

In 1995, Lora told me she couldn't compete in agility because she couldn't run the course with her dogs because of a "lung condition." I though she had allergies or asthma. Several years later, when I saw her at a dog show tethered to an oxygen tank, she reluctantly told me she was on the transplant waiting list.

She met Tim Brashears three years ago. They shared a passion for motorcycles, though she had never owned one. He fulfilled one of her life-long dreams by giving her a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He painted it purple because that was her favorite color.

He taught her how to ride and she taught him how to handle dogs in the show ring. Their honeymoon was spent riding their Harleys in The Great Smoky Mountains.

Tim says Lora gave him "the best three years of my life. She was the love of my life, my best friend and my soulmate."

Lora had lung transplants in 2002 and last year. Each worked for a while, but each ultimately failed. She died of a lung infection.

Among the many "saved" items that her husband found on Lora's computer were these words, paraphrased from dialogue in the movie "Braveheart":

"Everybody dies, but not everyone truly lives."

Lora Bauer Brashears truly lived, and she showed us all how to do that, with joy and grace and courage.