Chance
Chance was my “first” dog, the only dog I saw grow from puppy to old dog and die. He was a constant companion. When he got old and unable do the things like go for long walks, I didn’t realize how much I would miss him.
I am glad that on the Sunday afternoon of March 21, 2010 Chance got to walk again in the woods along a favorite path in the sunshine, got to drink from the creek in pleasurable abandon. I have a memento of this time, a small square rock to remind me of this last happy time he had in the woods.
All of the thousands of other walks in the woods seem to blur together. I always remember the first walk to the woods when he was a 4 month old, it took 45 minutes to traverse the three blocks to get there. We would walk 20 or 30 feet and he would stop, worried that we were too far from home, I would coax him to go onward and we would go another 30 feet. It was a look of pure joy he had when he stepped on the “June” green grass in the trail, running and tumbling along the trail, sniffing, peering, and exploring.
From that point on our walks in the woods became a habit taken for granted. Many of our trips were along familiar routes, charted and extended over the years of exploration. Some were unique, such as all the trips up Prospect Mountain, and the one trip up Blue Lake Mountain. One walk in winter Chance and I found that the trail I expected to have a snow mobile path didn’t. We had 2 miles of 20” power to get through. My big guy (7 years old then) broke trail for me.
On our “village” walks Chance accumulated acquaintances, people as well as dogs. His doggy friends in the course of 12 years included Maddie, Shep, Dunkin, Blitzsen, Coca, Pluto, Thor, Old Girl, the Black & White dogs, Kaleigh, Snickers, Brinkley, Java, Crystal, Gizmo, Dumper, Rottie#1, Lady, Toby, Bach, KC, Butterfly, Xena the warrior princess, Tucker, Joe and Woodrow. He also accepted in our home “foster” dogs, Lexi, Olie, and Cisco. He even had to put up with Cassie, his “evil step sister”, who came bouncing into our home as a puppy when he was six.
At the end, it would be the same thing going for a walk, we would walk 20 to 30 feet, this time he would have stop and rest, and I would coax him for the next travail. A walk around the block would take 45 minutes to an hour. His last long walk on the spring like evening of Wednesday March 24, 2010 he got to meet an old friend, Snickers, and get petted by Snickers’ owners. His docked tail was wagging a mile a minute. Oh I wish I had more hours to walk with him. Chance died on Thursday, March 25, 2010, in the evening. He was the first thing I loved that has died. I miss him dearly.
