Coach Says Goodby

December 6, 2022

As many of you know by now, after a slow but relentless decline in my ability to enjoy even the basic activities of life, my people determined it was finally time to contact the Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice to help me transition to a place populated by little children, flightless birds and slow squirrels – i.e. Britany Heaven. I had just celebrated my 15th birthday the day before with lots of fresh cooked salmon and a couple of short walks around the block.

Patty and the old man had been preparing themselves for this transition since my seizures began in May, however, because I couldn’t feel anything during the seizures and would always come out feeling okay afterwards I was blissfully unaware of my situation. I often heard them say that as long as I was frequently wagging my tail and not feeling pain I should keep on trucking (always fun to sneak in a Jerry Garcia reference).

I was feeling pretty good about my life and proud of my accomplishments, including: 1) putting a smile on the faces of countless children and adults (with the exception of the occasional un-enlightened cat-lover), 2) converting Joyce into a dog lover (that took about an hour), 3) being a constant companion to Noah during the most challenging years of his short life, and, 4) making the old man and Patty feel very guilty for forgetting to let me back into Steve’s house in the mountains of southwestern Colorado leaving me all night to fed off the coyotes and bears while they slept soundly (passed out may be a better description).

Fortunately for my many fans, the old man and I devised a communications network allowing me to stream directly to him my thoughts and remembrances from my final year of adventures. I, of course, had provided him with much of this information prior to my transition, leaving him the simple tasks of running spell check and posting it to the blog. However, once again his slacker life style combined with his world class ability to procrastinate resulted in a one+ year delay in this update. Editors note: Coach is correct, the first year of his blog saw postings on a daily and weekly basis, I may be spending too much time obsessing over Jets games and drinking wine.

So what follows is my account of our 2021 western adventures and my 2022 visit to Starsplitter III in Key West. I had a wonderful life, full of adventures and laughs, and I know I will be deeply missed by all who loved me. This is the gift that we dogs give to the world; an unbounded love of life and the people we touch.

Please note that the four photos above were taken on a ferry ride to Mackinac Island, MI. I often experienced this reaction from children of all ages most everywhere I ventured.

Late August, 2021 – Patty, the old man and I visited two state parks in Montana, we like the state parks as they are much less crowed than their federal neighbors. They are also very dog friendly, affording me many opportunities to exhibit my hunting posture as shown above (poodles eat your hearts out, this look always attracts smiles from onlookers).