Since Finn is 11 years old and is still recuperating from major thoracic surgery, I've been forced to retire him. Finn is actually my second air scent dog, the first one being Ben. He was found wandering the streets of my home town. I am not sure how much he counts, since he was only operational for about 2 years before he suffered a career ending injury to his suspensory ligament in one of his rear legs.
Finn has been my do everything, go every dog. The places we have traveled to and people we have helped are uncountable. Everything I asked him to do, he's done. But my favorite thing is his attitude: "Come on! Let's go see whats around this corner". If I was turned around, which happened more than once when we were out searching in the dark, fog and rain, all I had to do was follow his glowing collar and there was the trail. He is my partner, my protector; he is a part of me.
So leaving him at home brought forth an amazing array of emotions. A part of me is missing and I was unsure in the woods with out him there to guide me. I don't trust another dog as much as I trust him. There was heart aching sadness and with that came the irrational feeling of wanting to quit everything. That I couldn't do this without him.
I wonder how long I will feel like this. Darcy, my new dog, shouldn't have to labor under the unfair load of trying to live up to Finn. She is her own dog and needs to have the chance to write her own story. Just as Finn wrote his own incredible epic.
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| On his way home from Guyana in 2009 after thoroughly pissing off a fashionista-wanna be by jumping up on her plane seat and leaving his beautiful golden Lab hair all over it. |
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