Goodbye, for now.
Rocky has been in my avatar for years. This photo was taken when he was approaching two years old. We were on a rafting trip with the Park City Mountain Sports Club. His story began much earlier, though, as is usually the case.
Rocky was born on August 31, 2004, the only boy in a litter of three. Our previous dog, Misty, was a standard poodle. She was one of a large litter from a backyard breeder. She was a wonderful dog, but she had a lot of health problems, including a seizure disorder. We wanted to be careful this time. Rocky’s Breeder, Marie Hedeman, faxed a number of pages of veterinary and genetic testing to our veterinarian, Dr. Rick Sickelsmith, who reviewed them and relieved our minds. We picked him up when he was nine weeks old. He was a little over four pounds.
He grew up with us in our home in Summit Park, a neighborhood in the Park City area of Utah. We began to take him on snowshoe hikes when he was still a small puppy. We took him to puppy training classes. When he was five months old, he had an accident at his puppy training class that resulted in a break in his right hind leg, right on the growth plate. He was due to be neutered the next day, so we kept our appointment and brought him in, fasting according to our instructions, but explained that the leg was injured. An X-ray showed the break. On consideration, our vet decided to go ahead with the surgery, taking care of both things at once, because we would have to keep him quiet for a while after being neutered, which would give the leg time to heal, too. Rocky had his surgery and came home fitted with a Bobby Jones bandage, which made his leg look like a big sausage. When we considered taking him with us on the next snowshoe hike, I made a cover for his leg bandage using clear plastic upholstery fabric to protect the bandage. We were expecting to have to carry him when he got tired. It didn’t happen. He ran back and forth with the other dogs, the length of the line of showshoers. The afflicted leg barely touched the snow, as he ran on the other three legs. He wore his special cover over the bandage whenever we took him for a walk or we t snowshoeing with the club. When the leg healed and the bandage came off, Rocky's left hind leg was highly muscled and the right leg somewhat withered. It didn’t take long for that to equalize, however. He grew up to be a healthy, beautiful adult.
When Rocky was two, we thought he needed a live-in playmate, because he enjoyed the company of the other dogs we hiked and snowshoed with. Sunny came to live with us. When we were home, the pups enjoyed hiking the trails in our neighborhood. Rocky was faster over the long distance, but Sunny was a sprinter, so she could get to something faster if she was motivated.
The next few years were filled with hikes all over Utah, including around the lakes in the Uinta Mountains.
We got car seats for the dogs. When we took the fifth wheel on camping trips, Rocky rode shotgun.
Rocky and Sunny were good friends and enjoyed staying in the trailer and going on hikes.
In the winter, the backyard was dangerous for the dogs because of snow coming off the roof, a two-story drop in the back. They used the front deck as a litter box, which we were able to keep clean. Sometimes the snow accumulation was so great, they could have climbed onto the roof (Sunny actually did once), so we would have to shovel the snow away from the house.
The dogs really enjoyed our hikes in the snow.
Our local pond was a favorite place for a swim when the weather was warm. Rocky would swim out, where some much larger dogs would give up and return to shore. Whenever Rocky returned with the stick or ball, Sunny would meet him at the water's edge, take it away from him and bring it to us as if she had done all the work. We called her the "manager." (The employee does all the work, and the manager takes all the credit.) Rocky never minded. For him, the credit wasn’t the reason for the retrieval. The act itself was the reward.
Rocky had a few tricks he liked to perform.
When we lost Sunny to cancer suddenly in 2016, it didn’t take too long before we realized we still needed two dogs. That brought Dusty into our lives. Rocky went with us to pick him up.
Rocky was old enough be be more a parent than a sibling to the new puppy. Marie, our breeder, gave him a chewy. He looked like a new dad with a cigar.
Our veterinarian, Rick, had retired by then, but he came to visit us and meet the new addition.
Rocky taught Dusty everything he needed to know, sometimes giving close-up demonstrations.
Dusty soon took up Sunny's place next to Rocky on the front porch.
With the help of his "Mr. Mom," Dusty grew up, which is his story, and this is about Rocky. (Rocky never minded when Sunny or Dusty wanted to be the center of attention.)
Rocky played a role in our grandchildren's lives. He was always tolerant and sometimes even helpful.
After we moved to Oregon, Rocky had a couple more years of relative good health, before he began to show his age. A hip dislocation when we were still in Utah, left him with some arthritis. He needed to take thyroid medication, which made his blood pressure go up, which could be controlled with medication, so he was on two medications for the last few years of his life. When he was 17, he developed a degenerative eye disorder, which was treated with drops. Other than that, he had excellent health.
In 2021 we got him a stroller, so he could go with us on hikes. The stroller even made it all around Suttle Lake, one of our favorite camping/hiking places within reasonable driving distance.
The last year of his life, Rocky began to dislike travel. We made two trips to Florence, which is on the coast. He enjoyed being there, but not the trip. We visited the beach and the dunes common in the town. He enjoyed basking in the sun, while Dusty ran after the ball.
The stroller was very useful as Rocky couldn’t walk fast enough to keep with us. For the last few months, Rocky was unable to get up off the floor or his bed and unable to stand long enough to eat and drink. He could still walk, but his balance wasn’t good, and he often fell over. He remained able to go through the dog door when he could find it, and over the last few months only had one "accident" inside the house. He always let us know when he needed to go out. He needed constant supervision, so we have been adjusting our activities so one of us was always with us.
On Thursday we felt he was ready to move on to his next adventure. We verified this in a phone call with a friend who is a pet psychic. She said he preferred to do the procedure at home. We made the appointment for Tuesday, January 24, 2023, one week short of 18 1/2 years from Rocky's birth. On Monday, the weather was nice enough that we decided to take a goodbye walk. Rocky wore his coat and was wrapped up in a blanket with a heating pad. He walked for about 15 minutes and rode the rest of the time. It was cold, but sunny, and there was no wind. We had a good time.
We had some of Rocky's 18th birthday cake in the freezer, so we had a party Tuesday afternoon. Both dogs had some cake. Family members sent texts with photos of Rocky.
About 4:15 PM, Dr. Barton and Taylor came and helped Rocky have a relaxed, painless transition.
Rocky says he wants to come back to us and be our dog again.😳
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