It’s been a long time since I’ve posted and so much has happened in the past year. Mostly it was a year of recovery. Gator, Carly and Jordy all had issues late in 2021 which required surgeries. The dogs bounced back pretty quickly but Gator’s recovery was much slower and finally last November, he had an additional surgery which, although set him back initially, seems to have done the trick and now he is progressing really well.
Probably the most traumatic event of last year was that we said goodbye to Kody in December. At 14 1/2 years old, we knew time was not on his side, so we had been watching him closely as winter approached. We were determined that we wouldn’t prolong his life for our sake and we certainly didn’t want him suffering in any way. Well that is all easy in theory but it was not as black and white as we expected.
I’m not going to focus on our sadness of losing him though. I want to emphasize a life well lived. Gator and I have had a lot of dogs in the course of our lives but Kody ranks #1. I wrote about him in a post several years ago and many of you have seen and heard of him through the years.
He was a lab mix (mostly likely with border collie) that we rescued from the Boulder Humane Society back in 2008 as a puppy. That first year was crazy – Gator and I were both doing a lot of traveling and then we ended up packing up and moving from Colorado to Virginia, making a cross-country trip with two dogs and two horses over the course of 10 days. Kody was a a trooper and grew up a lot on that trip.
We have had at least two dogs at a time during most of the last twenty years, but there was a time of a few months when Kody was our only dog. He loved it! Kody really wasn’t all that interested in other dogs. He didn’t mind them but his focus was always on us. The problem was that during that time, Gator and I were both doing a lot of traveling for work and Kody was miserable when we were away. We decided that Kody needed a puppy for company and so we got Carly. As much as Kody ended up loving Carly, he wasn’t really thrilled about the idea of another dog. He took it all in good stride though, and as different as they were, they got along great.
Not to say Kody wasn’t without his quirks, though. He was terrified of thunder. There was just no calming him once he hit the panic button – and it didn’t end when the storm ended. He would be a mess for hours afterward! We’ve had many sleepless nights during storm season.
The one place where Kody was happy was in the truck. It didn’t matter if we were going somewhere or not. He was perfectly content to lay in the backseat and snooze the day away in the shade right there in the driveway. Of course he loved nothing better than an adventure! Gator would load all the dogs up and go out in the fields and work all morning, then come in for lunch with Carly and Jordy – and Kody would still be out holding down that truck.
I can’t help but smile whenever I think of him!
So now we turn the page onto 2023 with fond memories of the best dog ever who thanked us every day for rescuing him!