Here's Kai.
Another one of our visiting club dogs.
He's a 13ish-month-old cross and very sweet. He is slightly immature, but you can only expect that with half of him being golden retriever. ;) One more day with this guy and yea back home, and Judith will enjoy a little break until we get back from graduation and King comes home.
Yesterday we got the offical email.
The Goldog gets to be known as "Team Sharon and Placer" from Shawmut, MT. It's only 9ish hours from here... Not too bad, right?
Planning this trip is kind of crazy. It sounds like we will be caravanning (is that a word??) up there with another raiser who will give my co-raiser a ride back to Utah while Rick and I do the tourist thing in Portland and Seattle.
It will be fun... Although I'm sure King will be EXHAUSTED by the end.
We can't wait though!
It's taken almost a year to be able to write this post. Everytime I think about writing it... I can't.
Last October my mom called me and said she didn't think Vinnie was going to be around much longer. He'd had diabetes for about and year and been doing great but the last few weeks had been having seizures about once a week. For a while everytime she thought he was done, the next day he would wake up as happy, normal Vinnie. During that time, I went over to visit him as much as possible and treated it like the last time I might see him... Just in case.
This day was a little different. He had started seizing at about 1 am and they kept going throughout the day, every few hours. He wasn't getting up, and he was ready to go. I was able to go over, pay down next to him, and give him one last pep talk... Tell him to save me a place near his house. Where he is, I want to be. (Augh! 6 months later and this story still makes me cry!)
Dr. Summers has been his vet since the beginning and is basically the best. When we brought him in, she layed on the floor with him and cried. We gave him one more hug and said one more goodbye. I never thought I would have to do this... My big yellow lab was supposed to live forever. He knew it was time though and he told us.
Over the last several months, King has learned how to stay home in the crate while Rick and I are at work. (When I have students to work with in the classroom, King doesn't get to go to work.) Lucky for him, this is soon coming to an end... Classes end officially next week, and then the dreaded Finals Week. After that King gets to start being the office dog again. He is probably one of the "clingiest" puppies I've had, so I'm sure he will love getting to be with me most days. Sometimes that quality drives me crazy, but Marnie loves it because she always knows exactly where he is: right at her feet. He loves to follow me around the house and if I stop somewhere for longer than 30 seconds, he's as close as he can possibly get to me, without getting right in my skin...
...And sometimes when he does this, it's so hard to resist not letting him up on the couch. Don't worry, we always reluctantly resist. (I pushed him off after I took the picture.) Are you sure you're not part golden, King?
