Walking Alone to the Mailbox

I just got the mail by myself for the first time in about 15 or 16 years. 

If I'm the first one home, my routine is to sling the car keys and tote bags and purse down, holler out, "Is there a dog here?"  Eutaw dances around with me or maybe sheepishly grins up at me as she wakes from a deep sleep.  Then we head out the door to get the mail (and take care of business). 

We had to put Brown Bear's Eutaw Red Sky to sleep yesterday.

She will leave such a huge hole in our lives. 

She was my constant through most of my adult life.  Getting a dog signaled a stability and capacity for responsibility that I equated with growing up.  Sally Diess in Eugene helped us find Jim Shine in Sparks, Nevada, who had a litter of Chessies and a "female pick" left. Her puppy years were spent in Oregon, her middle years in upstate New York, her old age in Santa Fe and San Diego.   I look back to those Santa Fe years - newly divorced - and never remember myself as lonely; Eutaw was with me. She was my personal trainer, my sous chef, my kitchen floor cleaner, and my great, great friend.

She was an intrepid mountain climber but was always mystified at why there wasn't water at the end of the trail.  If there wasn't water - there had better be meadows of tall grass and wildflowers that she could eat. Her last weekend with us she spent some quality time eating sage flowers in our backyard.  Her first mountain adventure was with the Vultures at Mount Hood, Oregon. She smiled for the first time on that trip.  She also learned how to eat huckleberries off the bush - a delicate skill she honed harvesting strawberries in our backyard gardens over the years. She was only about 6 months old at Mount Hood and her paws gave out on the third day of scree so that she was carried back to the cabin.  The fourth day I stayed behind to swim her while the rest of the gang hiked - starting a 16 year tradition for the two of us. However, she became a canine Adirondack 46er with her late fall 1998 summit of Wolf Jaw.  Our house in San Diego today is on a mountain of sorts but she only hiked it a handful of times as a 15/16 year old.  There are so many beautiful places we explored together - my memories of them framed over and beyond her perked up ears.

After two years of go-getting, she became a stylish retriever of bumpers, frisbees, splashes and snow.  She launched herself into icy waters in Minnesota and New York with verve - especially if it was off a dock.  Her "home" swims were the Willamette River Whitely boat launch, the Erie Canal in Vischer Ferry, the Henry Hudson Park near Selkirk, Delmar Dog Beach and Abiquiu Reservoir.  But she wasn't above a good water freak in reservoirs, rivers, other oceans, and deep stream ponds too numerous to list. She hated water from a hose or as rain. Go figure. I spent weekend days over the years driving her to her swims - just the two of us.  I'd blast the radio/CDs/iPod and she'd tolerate it until she could smell the water - and then she'd whine along to the music (sort of).  She loved the ocean and breaking surf most - her days at Delmar Dog Beach were her finest even though she was nearly ten when the Pacific became her home waters. To be clear, her swims were really her working zone - she would retrieve bumpers until her back legs would tremble like jelly and I would call an end to the work.  I think her other favorite place was Lower Gates Farm in New Hampshire (meadows! pond! bullfrogs! reeds to demolish!). I am sure she had the talent to take on the jr/sr/master hunter circuit but I balked at the birds-in-the-freezer stage; she hated the show dog thing despite winning a best in breed at 9 months (only two Chessies competed!).  She never blamed me for her status as companion dog.

She was my inspiration for the work I did for Chesapeake Bay Retriever Relief & Rescue.  I could never understand how people could throw away such good dogs.  Eutaw, however, hated sharing with the foster dogs.  There was always one terrifying dog fight during a foster stay; I have a scar on my palm to prove it.  She was an alpha bitch.  Even as an ancient dog she could muster a growl deep in her chest to warn off overzealous sniffers and clueless puppies too close to her bowls.  In contrast she loved gardening (well, the weeding part because you, of course, need to retrieve the weeds!) and small children.  She was fascinated by babies and toddlers.  She would "retrieve" tennis balls for the toddlers in her Albany backyard - it was fascinating how she would gently give the balls to them and clown for them on the 1 yard retrieves out and back.

CH Quail Run's Tesla at Redfire WD x WR Brown Bear's Skyfire Bear MH WDQ.  Eutaw.  Miracle of Nature. Fuzzy Butt. Helicopter Head. Bear Girl. Brownie. Eubie. Sweetie.

See you later Alligator, in a while Crocodile.  Stay and be good.