Chancers: the best dog in the world!
Coco got big and Chancers was tired!
Finally, Chance decided to mother Coco.
This photo was taken in our kitchen, about April. Jorgie decided to share his noodles with Chance, I looked over and he was sitting on the floor with his bowl! He took a bite, then gave her a bite. (YUCK. But I grabbed my camera before saving him from dog germs.)(Warning: this is gonna be a long post. I love my dog and miss her terribly. This is more for me than for you. :)
CHANCE 1997-2010
Many of you may not know that Jeremy and I are dog owners/lovers. I don't especially love everyone else's dogs, just the well behaved ones. But I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Chance, and our newer dog, Coco. They are both Golden Retrievers. If you ever decide to get a dog, a golden retriever is the way to go. Smart, loyal and so good with children. They aren't Seeing Eye dogs by accident!
Anyway, Jeremy and I got married in 1996. Jeremy had grown up with dogs in the house and I hadn't. I wasn't convinced that I wanted a dirty, slobbery thing that would shed in the house with me. He wore me down. After we had been in our new house for a few months, he went out and picked out a puppy. She was from a breeder that his family knew. He knew that if I was going to agree to a dog, it had to be a female. So, he went and visited the pups. There were 3 females. He didn't pick the most hyper, nor the most mellow. Chance was happy and friendly.
He took me to see her and any objections I had to a dog immediately evaporated. She was beautiful! (For some reason, we don't have puppy pictures of Chance. I am not sure why. I think it was in the brief period of time when we had a broken camera. :( )
It seemed like forever until we could go and pick her up. And then one day, she was ours! We had read up on puppies and training them. We crate trained Chance. Poor girl! She cried every night for 3 nights. It was awful! But she was so good and fun when we were home with her and she was upstairs with us.
She potty trained pretty quickly. But man, did she like to chew things up! I lost at least one pair of shoes to her. Once she was completely house broken, we noticed that when strangers came to the door Chance got nervous. She was so excited to see everyone that she would pee little drops on our carpet. NOT COOL. We learned what she needed. We told everyone that came to the house that they had to ignore her and no one could talk in the "pee voice" (ie: high pitched and excited.) She eventually outgrew it. (Thank heaven for that! I had to buy a Bissell to keep my carpets cleaned.)
We learned pretty quick that Chance was just about the best dog in the world. She learned right away not to jump on people. I started taking her on walks with me every day that I didn't work and she learned to heel pretty quickly.
We bought her a hard, red plastic ball that first year. When you threw it, it would light up on impact. She loved to play fetch. We never really got her to learn "drop it" very well. She knew what we wanted, she just didn't want to let go!
That Christmas, we had blown glass balls on the tree that were exactly the same size as her red ball. We frequently came home to broken ornaments that she had bit off of the tree. After about the third one, I learned my lesson and moved the ornaments up! (Great practice for having a toddler!)
Mitchell was born in the fall of '98. We had read about dogs getting jealous of new babies. We weren't too concerned, but just in case, Jeremy brought receiving blankets home from the hospital that Mitchell had been swaddled in. He put them where she slept and let her smell the blanket while petting her.
Mitchell came home, and just as we suspected, Chance was amazing. She knew that she was lower on the totem pole than the baby. One funny thing that happened, is that she would lie down under the crib while I was in the nursery with Mitchell. After Mitchell had been home for just a few days, my mom came over to visit. As my mom approached the crib to see a sleeping baby, a deep growl came from under the crib. I got after Chance a little, but my mom and I both laughed. Mitchell was Chancers' baby too!
As you know, our babies came fast and furious. Chance was a mother. Have you seen the Disney movie, Peter Pan? Chance was like Nana. She tended the children.
My sister and her family moved into my mom and dad's house in 2002 while they were building. That same year Jeremy and I went to Mexico for a week and left the kids and Chance at my mom's house. Liesel was 18 months old as was her cousin, Cameron. Cameron LOVED Chance. Every morning he would go immediately to the deck to see if she was still there. He would go outside and sit on her like she was a horse. He tugged on her ears and basically inflicted all of the torment a toddler could. Chance would bear it as long as she saw fit. When she was tired of him she would s-l-o-w-l-y stand up so as not to topple him. Once he had slid down her back and on to the deck, she would turn around, check on him and then walk 4 steps and lie down again!
Chance was my friend when I was home with small children. And while she didn't really speak English, she certainly understood it. I would walk past the door and she would perk up and look at me. "You wanna go outside?" and she would be up and next to the door.
She liked the school kids and sometimes she would follow them home from the bus, if I had let her out. If I went looking for her and said, "Chancers! Go home!" She would dutifully trot home and wait on the porch for me to let her in.
She loved to walk with me. As soon as I put on my running shoes, she would stand by the door. And once I got out the leash, she couldn't contain her excitement.
About the time we had Jorgen in '08, our 11 year old dog was showing her age. She wouldn't play fetch for more than 2 throws of the ball. She would retrieve it alright, but then she would wander off to lie down in the shade. I noticed on our walks that she was slowing down. By the end of our 3 miles I was waiting for her. Since we live in the country, I would take her down a country road. When she got tired I tied her leash to a farm fence while she rested in the tall grass. I would continue, turn around and pick her up on the way home. She never moved, she just waited for me.
Then one time, I took her on a walk and she just couldn't make it. I called Jeremy from my cell phone and made him come and pick her up in the van. I was sad! But pretty much in denial. I didn't want to think of losing her.
In April of '09 I got a wild hair and decided we needed a puppy. I figured that it would be good for Chance and that she could train up a new pup the way we liked~ like her!
I found the cutest Golden Retriever pup since Chance! This time I named her, and I chose Coco. Jeremy figured that she should be Coco Puff and maybe Liesel or I decided she was a princess. Princess Coco Puff it was!
Well, I finally pushed Chance past her limit of niceness. She must have felt that she was being replaced. She DID NOT like Coco. She growled at her and nipped at her. Coco was absolutely unabashed. She just kept coming back for more. Once she nipped hard enough that Coco yelped and Jeremy grabbed her head, got nose to nose with her and said "NO!" After that she left her alone.
Anyway, Jeremy and I got married in 1996. Jeremy had grown up with dogs in the house and I hadn't. I wasn't convinced that I wanted a dirty, slobbery thing that would shed in the house with me. He wore me down. After we had been in our new house for a few months, he went out and picked out a puppy. She was from a breeder that his family knew. He knew that if I was going to agree to a dog, it had to be a female. So, he went and visited the pups. There were 3 females. He didn't pick the most hyper, nor the most mellow. Chance was happy and friendly.
He took me to see her and any objections I had to a dog immediately evaporated. She was beautiful! (For some reason, we don't have puppy pictures of Chance. I am not sure why. I think it was in the brief period of time when we had a broken camera. :( )
It seemed like forever until we could go and pick her up. And then one day, she was ours! We had read up on puppies and training them. We crate trained Chance. Poor girl! She cried every night for 3 nights. It was awful! But she was so good and fun when we were home with her and she was upstairs with us.
She potty trained pretty quickly. But man, did she like to chew things up! I lost at least one pair of shoes to her. Once she was completely house broken, we noticed that when strangers came to the door Chance got nervous. She was so excited to see everyone that she would pee little drops on our carpet. NOT COOL. We learned what she needed. We told everyone that came to the house that they had to ignore her and no one could talk in the "pee voice" (ie: high pitched and excited.) She eventually outgrew it. (Thank heaven for that! I had to buy a Bissell to keep my carpets cleaned.)
We learned pretty quick that Chance was just about the best dog in the world. She learned right away not to jump on people. I started taking her on walks with me every day that I didn't work and she learned to heel pretty quickly.
We bought her a hard, red plastic ball that first year. When you threw it, it would light up on impact. She loved to play fetch. We never really got her to learn "drop it" very well. She knew what we wanted, she just didn't want to let go!
That Christmas, we had blown glass balls on the tree that were exactly the same size as her red ball. We frequently came home to broken ornaments that she had bit off of the tree. After about the third one, I learned my lesson and moved the ornaments up! (Great practice for having a toddler!)
Mitchell was born in the fall of '98. We had read about dogs getting jealous of new babies. We weren't too concerned, but just in case, Jeremy brought receiving blankets home from the hospital that Mitchell had been swaddled in. He put them where she slept and let her smell the blanket while petting her.
Mitchell came home, and just as we suspected, Chance was amazing. She knew that she was lower on the totem pole than the baby. One funny thing that happened, is that she would lie down under the crib while I was in the nursery with Mitchell. After Mitchell had been home for just a few days, my mom came over to visit. As my mom approached the crib to see a sleeping baby, a deep growl came from under the crib. I got after Chance a little, but my mom and I both laughed. Mitchell was Chancers' baby too!
As you know, our babies came fast and furious. Chance was a mother. Have you seen the Disney movie, Peter Pan? Chance was like Nana. She tended the children.
My sister and her family moved into my mom and dad's house in 2002 while they were building. That same year Jeremy and I went to Mexico for a week and left the kids and Chance at my mom's house. Liesel was 18 months old as was her cousin, Cameron. Cameron LOVED Chance. Every morning he would go immediately to the deck to see if she was still there. He would go outside and sit on her like she was a horse. He tugged on her ears and basically inflicted all of the torment a toddler could. Chance would bear it as long as she saw fit. When she was tired of him she would s-l-o-w-l-y stand up so as not to topple him. Once he had slid down her back and on to the deck, she would turn around, check on him and then walk 4 steps and lie down again!
Chance was my friend when I was home with small children. And while she didn't really speak English, she certainly understood it. I would walk past the door and she would perk up and look at me. "You wanna go outside?" and she would be up and next to the door.
She liked the school kids and sometimes she would follow them home from the bus, if I had let her out. If I went looking for her and said, "Chancers! Go home!" She would dutifully trot home and wait on the porch for me to let her in.
She loved to walk with me. As soon as I put on my running shoes, she would stand by the door. And once I got out the leash, she couldn't contain her excitement.
About the time we had Jorgen in '08, our 11 year old dog was showing her age. She wouldn't play fetch for more than 2 throws of the ball. She would retrieve it alright, but then she would wander off to lie down in the shade. I noticed on our walks that she was slowing down. By the end of our 3 miles I was waiting for her. Since we live in the country, I would take her down a country road. When she got tired I tied her leash to a farm fence while she rested in the tall grass. I would continue, turn around and pick her up on the way home. She never moved, she just waited for me.
Then one time, I took her on a walk and she just couldn't make it. I called Jeremy from my cell phone and made him come and pick her up in the van. I was sad! But pretty much in denial. I didn't want to think of losing her.
In April of '09 I got a wild hair and decided we needed a puppy. I figured that it would be good for Chance and that she could train up a new pup the way we liked~ like her!
I found the cutest Golden Retriever pup since Chance! This time I named her, and I chose Coco. Jeremy figured that she should be Coco Puff and maybe Liesel or I decided she was a princess. Princess Coco Puff it was!
Well, I finally pushed Chance past her limit of niceness. She must have felt that she was being replaced. She DID NOT like Coco. She growled at her and nipped at her. Coco was absolutely unabashed. She just kept coming back for more. Once she nipped hard enough that Coco yelped and Jeremy grabbed her head, got nose to nose with her and said "NO!" After that she left her alone.
One day at work Jeremy sent me the photo of Coco and Chance lying on the dog bed. Chance had been sleeping and Coco crawled as far as her leash would let her and snuggled up next to her. His caption was, "They did it on their own."
Coco grew fast! Her mom was a small golden, but her dad, Beckham was HUGE. All of a sudden, Coco was bigger and faster than Chance. But she respected her. She would come and nip at her and run in circles around her until Chance would play with her. I know that having a puppy made Chance's last year better.
Finally, this spring she started having frequent "asthma attacks". (I don't know what they were, but it was difficulty breathing.) At first it was only after running. Then it only lasted 10-15 minutes. Gradually it went from a quality of life from 90/10, to 80/20 (the first number being the percentage of time she appeared to feel good.) Then summer hit and it was all of a sudden 50/50. But she still wagged her tail, ate her food and looked up at us adoringly. The end of June it hit 20/80 and by the middle of July it seemed she struggled to breathe all of the time. I prayed that she would just pass away as she slept. But it seemed she just loved us too much. Even as miserable as she was, she wagged her tail with vigor every time I would talk to her or pet her.
How do you decide to put your dog down? It was awful. Finally Jeremy made the appointment. I was a mess. (I'm bawling as I type:) But she could NOT breathe. How mean to keep her here!
On July 22, in the morning we took her to the vet. How sad that she was excited to get back on that leash! I have heard lots of people say that dogs know when they are going to the Happy Hunting Grounds. Well, Chance was excited to go. We got to the vet. She rested while we waited. (Wagging that tail.) Her breathing sounded awful. You would think that she would just die right there.
They got us back into a room. They took Chance and started an IV and brought her back. I told her how much I loved her and what a good friend she had been to me. And Jeremy and I both cried. A lot. When the doctor came in, I was petting Chance. She was absolutely serene. I kid you not, she wagged her tail to the very end. When she finally stopped that horrible, labored breathing I was happy for her, but sad for me.
We took Chance home wrapped in a blanket. I don't think that our kids thought that they would miss her so much. She has been an ol' lady dog for a long time. Especially for Seth and Logan. But none of them remember life without her. When we brought her home in her blanket, the kids just cried and cried and cried.
We buried her under our willow tree. We said a prayer and made her a little stepping stone with her paw print in it. It says CHANCE 1997-2010. It wasn't big enough to put "THE BEST DOG IN THE WORLD."
That is so sad. We are doing something very similar. Our Acey is 10 and acting old so we got a little yellow lab puppy that drives Acey crazy! I hate to think of the end of Acey. That's so hard. I'm glad that chance can breathe again though. Why can't good dogs just live longer??
ReplyDeleteThat's what I say! I wanted Chance to live 30 years!
ReplyDeleteThat is so sad... I have only one experience with our 15 year dog growing up, and I went to the vet with my brother to put him down cuz my mom couldn't handle it. Anyway, I guess that's what you get when you're a dog lover, they cant live forever....
ReplyDeleteHey it was fun working with you last week. You're a good mommy resource with all your experience :)"