Losing Lark

CH MACH Zephyr's Evelyn Echo WC CD RA MXB MJB NF (Lark) - 3/23/08 - 4/23/19


Lark had a significant seizure on March 18th. George was home and he rushed her to our vet. He called me and I met him there. Her initial blood work was pretty normal but because she was having trouble calming down after the seizure and had some minor neurological abnormalities, our vet advised us to take her to the Veterinary Specialty Center for overnight observation and additional diagnostics. After I left her there, they took chest x-rays and determined she had three large masses in her lungs.
The next morning they did an ultrasound of her abdomen, which came back normal. We had determined if there were masses in her abdomen that would have been a decision point to let her go, but because the ultrasound was normal we decided we would like to spend some quality time with her while we could because other than the seizure she seemed pretty normal. However, because of her seizure presentation, it was a certainty that what was going on in her lungs had already metastasized to her brain. We opted not to do an MRI to confirm this since the additional information wasn't likely to change her outcome. We took her home with steroids and anti-seizure meds. She did pretty well for about a month, but started to decline over Easter weekend, losing left side awareness, doing a lot of pacing and bumping into things, and going into corners and not being able to get out. Based on these symptoms, we think it was the brain tumor vs. the lung mets that caused her decline. We let her go on April 23rd.

It is still difficult to describe the loss I feel. She was the em-path of the house and helped my husband and I through many personal family issues in recent years. She was the giving tree of dogs. She did everything I ever asked of her. She was my first BBE champion and my third Rusty Jones award recipient. She earned her MACH last fall, waiting for me to be ready to run her again and running better and faster for me once I figured out she wanted to be handled with blind crosses as much as possible, to give her the illusion she was chasing me around the ring. But most of all she was a true companion. I treasure our many walks and time hanging out on the couch as much as her many accomplishments. I miss her so much, but am fortunate to have her son and her niece to love and to train. And although I'm very sad, I also feel some peace knowing we did what we could for her as long as we could but also tried not too hold on too tightly or too long.

Kicked off the cruise ship life and learned to swim!

Tobago (Zephyr's Flusher of Dux CD BN RI JH NA NAJ WCI) is quite an accomplished fellow. He got a bit of a late start in his performance career, preferring to spend his early years socializing. When Kathy G. finally convinced Amanda to kick Tobago off the cruise ship life he was living, he proved he was the working dog we had promised her. 

I'm very proud of what he and Amanda have accomplished together and know they aren't finished yet!

Pedigree: https://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=753998 
OFA Clearances: https://www.ofa.org/advanced-search?f=sr&appnum=1578927 (CDDY N/N)

It's been a while...

On and off since the fall of 2014 I've been dealing with personal family issues that have taken my time and attention away from Tollers. That's pretty much Koan and Baco's entire lifespan, so they have not received the amount of training and attention I expected to devote to them when I made the (somewhat crazy) decision to breed two litters in 2014 only seven weeks apart in age and to keep a puppy from each. I can't really make up for the time lost and don't intend to stress myself out trying, but in the past year I've slowly been able to get back into some of the dog sports I love, primarily agility. Koan and Baco have a lot of drive and biddability in this venue and in the past few months, I'm finally starting to see things come together when we are trialing.

Koan recently finished her AXJ title and got her first leg for her AX. She is speedy but relatively steady and likes to keep her eye on me while running.

Koan's AXJ title run
Koan's AX first Q run

Baco is something else entirely, but what an interesting something else he is! It still amazes me that he has turned into such a crazy agility dog. He gets many compliments from people who watch him run, even when he doesn't Q, which is often!

Baco AX run
Baco AXJ run

A tomato by another other name...

I realize it's been well over a year since I've posted anything. Aspects of my life not pertaining to dogs took precedence, really since the fall of 2014. Very slowly I've been trying to turn my time and attention back to the dogs, who along with my husband, were incredibly supportive in the past 1.5 years. My attention was so focused elsewhere I completely forgot to mention we ended up keeping one of Lark's puppies from her 2014 litter, a litter I neglected to even blog about, I was so busy with back to back litters, even though the first litter consisted of only one pup.

Keeping a puppy from Lark's litter after deciding to keep Koan wasn't planned, and certainly wasn't a very prudent thing to do, and had I realized how much was going to be heaped on my plate of life since he was born I might have had the good sense to find him somewhere else (anywhere else) to go, but I liked him enough to think he deserved a show home, and then wasn't able to focus on that for a long time, and now I'm not certain I'd be able to give him up, he's become such a fixture. 

The last puppy born to Lark was a beautiful dark red male with white in all the right places. Unfortunately, the puppy before him didn't make it, and he seemed in danger of following suit. From the start, he was rather flaccid and not very engaged in nursing. I spent a lot of time in the first few days of his life rubbing him and making sure he had good access to Lark. Because Lark's 2014 litter was named after tomatoes, the last puppy was known as Mr. Stripey, a type of heirloom tomato (I swear!), christened with that particular moniker due to the lovely white stripe gracing his head. The others were Roma, Cherry, Big Boy and Sun Gold. Within a week or two, he had plumped up to match the other pups and was a very contented puppy. That's him in the middle, on his back in the whelping pool. 

I think he was over 6 months old before I registered him as Zephyr's Lively Baco Noir with a call name of Baco though he is still called Mr. Stripey, or Stripe and answers to that as well. Baco Noir is a type of grape found in the Finger Lakes, NY area but also in Ontario, where Baco's sire resides. 

Starting in the fall of 2014, I managed to get both him and Koan through puppy and basic obedience classes, and then through my agility club's Level 1 program.

Baco's coming up on 20 months old this week, and doing well in agility though his debut in the ring a few weeks ago left a lot to be desired! He also picked up his first major in January at a local show. I must admit it's been a bit strange to have a male Toller in the house. I've always kept bitches before. He's eager to please and engage but goes about things a bit differently than the girls do. I fondly refer to as my blockhead. So far I'm enjoying the journey with him.

Snow Falling on Tollers

Sounds like the title of a haiku. Here are some pictures that didn't make the holiday card this year...

 

 

Introducing Zephyr's Koan

Having two litters this summer really made it hard to keep up with things like blogging. I have a lot of catching up to do. First on my list is introducing Zephyr's Koan. Yes, we kept our singleton pup born May 31st of this year. I stopped resisting somewhere around the time she picked up both live and dead pigeons at just under 8 weeks. About a week later she picked up a duck I thawed out for her to practice with. Of course, we're still working on the bring it back part, but that will come.

Koan's first duck

I'm not sure if Koan's drive and intensity is the result of her being a singleton or if that's what she would have turned out like regardless of how many littermates she had since she does have some pretty awesome parents, but she is amazingly smart and intense even in a breed known for those characteristics.

About the name.... Koan "is" our K litter. I was struggling a bit to come up with a name I liked, but decided this one fit. It's an unusual name and the shortest registered name I've come up with to date. Not too many people know the meaning of this word, so I've been telling people I'll pay them a dollar if they can tell me the meaning without having to look it up. So far I've only had to pay out one dollar.

Definition of Koan

Play date for the singleton

After doing a lot of research and reading about raising a singleton, including this excellent AKC breed column, The Singleton Syndrome, I became convinced Eta's puppy was in need of a puppy play date or two with a litter of puppies around the same age. I was very fortunate to have a local breeder open up her home and litter to Eta's puppy. Puppy was able to spend a few hours around the five week mark hanging with a litter of Golden Retriever pups who were about a week younger. The puppies were very close in size, and in color too, since this litter is from field lines. 

At first Eta's puppy thought I must have made a mistake. Surely I didn't mean for her to be stuck in a pen with these other creatures! But eventually she warmed up to them, hung out and played a little, then settled down for a nap with her temporary littermates.



Where's the Toller?

There must be some mistake...

I'm stuck

 

Anyone?

Need a nap buddy?

New friends