Goodbye Caney "Wonder Dog"

Born: January 20, 1999  Died: July 31, 2009 at 5:25pm

Justin was his person:  June 8th 1999 - forever.

Love you, and thank you for showing us Wonder Dog one more time last weekend. You are indisputable proof that no matter how bad things are that there is no such thing as a bad day on the trail.

I miss you already but I know you are arrogantly leading the pack somewhere. Go play with your best friend Russell. Say hi to Mom (just try to pretend you know/want to heel when she walks you).  Go find Madi, she wanted a white dog, and now she has a really good one.

I always felt like you were a person trapped in a dogs body. If that is true, I will gladly be your dog next time around.

Right now I can't imagine having to go so long till we spend time on the trail together again, but we will always be closest to you when we are in the mountains.

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Today was a good day...

Today was a good day, first time I was sort of happy since Wednesday afternoon.

Lunch at 5 Guys...Petsmart...and then a short hike before it stormed.

Caney woke up and had a croissant with his pain meds, I made him some ground beef and cheese for his main course. Yes it was a departure from steak, but better than his diet of the last 16 months.

Then we took a shower together. Amazingly I only learned he preferred showers when we got in together, rather than me wash him solo, sometime last spring. He never has been tough to bathe but he gets right in like this without any trouble. He wants to be treated like a person, and I think he feels we are equals like this, rather than a dog forced to get a bath.

Had to be careful drying him so he was pretty wet when we went out to lunch at 5 Guys. We ate outside and he ate a hamburger hot off the grill in under a minute. It was insane. I ate my burger a bit more slowly, it was delicious but I haven't been hungry. I ended up giving him half of it, and Aim gave him the last of hers. He still wanted more, so we gave him fries. You could tell he was only eating them to be polite. While (healthy) humans don't consider french fries a veggie, a dog on hospice sure does. Meat and dairy only please.

As we walked back to the car someone had a little pep in his step, just like he did when we left home. We were planning to go to PetSmart anyway which was about 1/4 mile down the road, with the pending rain we were gonna drive but Caney looked like he wanted to walk. We started walking and when we got to the intersection we needed to turn hard right, no joke Caney made the turn before we did towards PetSmart. I don't know if these places have dog whistles or dogs have a homing device to go there but he does the same thing with Petco. Only PetSmart was out of sight and still about 1/8th mile away.

When we got to PetSmart he turned directly towards the doors which magically open for dogs (ok that isn't true, they open for everyone but Caney thinks it is). We walked every aisle and he visited all the animals, smelled every single bag of food, every bin of treats, and eventually picked out some Bil-Jac Gooberlicious peanut butter treats. I asked him if he was sure -after picking a $9 1lb marrow bone the other day and not touching it because he hates heavy toys and treats- and he grunted YES. I opened the bag, and he gobbled up a treat.

We walked back to the car, and he passed a few stores he stared into but didn't have magic dog doors or any interesting looking stuff in them, Caney kept walking.

We got back to the car, he refused to get in the back, apparently he doesn't like the skid plate or door opening on the rear of the SX4. So he had to get in the driver seat where he was going to stay till I convinced him while it was a small car we he had no hands and couldn't reach the pedals. Yes, there are some things Wonder Dog can't do (at least legally).

We got home and he wouldn't come out, I said he could come out the front if he wanted or I would help him. He just looked at me with those eager eyes saying, "it's a good day, lets do something else."

So I went inside without him and told Aim to change shoes we were going for a walk at Ushers Road Preserve before the storm. 15 minutes later we were at the preserve and Caney jumped right out of the car. He was ready to go.

Well he did great, keeping up easily even at a fast pace we kept to get done before the storm. We finished just as the rain came down.

Back home he got right out of the car with a little help, and got up stairs where he drank a bowl of water and got on the couch with us for a nap.

Time for a cheese omelet.

Yes it was a good day!

-- Sent from my Palm wireless device

Wonder Dog Gets Unleashed

We got the terrible news today that Caney definitely has cancer and it has spread to his spine. Fortunately he didn't have to undergo the biopsy to confirm this, and fortunately, we waited long enough on the planned surgeries that he didn't spend the rest of his life recovering from a needless and complicated surgery.

We are obviously heartbroken, not only because we love him, or because he is still so young and energetic (even at 11), but because he has been a part of Aimee and my life really almost from the beginning. He was born at just about our 1 year anniversary, and we got him after just 16 months together. Really a whole stage of our life has been spent with Caney, and he was a big part of it.

For some time he hasn't been very energetic around home, not seeming to want to take walks, but he has been a different dog on the trail. I joked that he was saving his energy for the trail, and maybe he has been, but the tumors on his spine have sapped him of his mobility, regardless of his boundless desire.

I knew something was wrong 3 weeks ago when he wasn't keeping up on the steeps on Hadley, he finished the hike though, 4 miles and 3000ft gained and lost. Then 2 weeks ago he wouldn't walk with me to the mail box after I noticed he was having trouble on the steps. For a dog that would get faster the more technical and steeper the terrain, this was a definite sign something was wrong.

Although I feared there would be a day he would have to be carried out from the mountains, he has yet to ever let us down on a trip. Now I wish that would have been the case rather than this.

Caney never ceases to amaze us, even at almost 11, with tumors on his spine he was able to walk the same muddy rutted portage path as us multiple times this past weekend after I wasn't even sure he should come, and when we finished he still looked the least tired of the group. The only difference was he didn't carry his usual load, but he still no doubt had the toughest job of all. He did his job, keeping the group together and making sure we got done at a reasonable pace. We have never hiked with anyone who wasn't impressed with him on the trail, even those who normally don't like dogs always seem to say, "If I could get a dog like that, I would get a dog, he is such a cool dog." We have always been equally impressed and equally proud of his abilities.

While there isn't a lot to be happy about, the good news is he still feels well enough to eat, and maybe take a few more easy hikes and camping trips over the next few weeks.

For the last 16 months he has been on a restricted diet of what looked like dried carboard to increase his urine output and acidity, and for the last 2 months a highly restricted diet to keep him well hydrated, due to the problems that are now clearly more than stones and an abscessed prostate. He was such a different dog post cystotomy in 2008, the old Caney, even playing with the cat 4 days post op, and we just hoped that the problems could be fixed again. We always had the hope and belief that what was wrong with him was fixable, and we just needed to get him well enough to have it all fixed. As a result he wasn't able to eat any of his favorite foods.

Today he had steak with cheese, and as soon as I can find him some edible bagels or croissants he is going to get a dozen of each. Believe it or not, for a dog he is very picky about bagels. We once got him those stale hard bagel treats at the pet store and he refused to eat them, he never liked Milk Bones either and thought the Border Collie on the front of the box was a sellout.

On the menu canolis, bagels, croissants, steak, cheese and more cheese, and no more peas Caney...not in stews, and certainly not pureed!

Everyone loves you Caney!!