I very seldom have placed any pictures of my boy Kenzie here on the board but it is actually because of this board that Kenzie came into my life. Thirteen years ago someone joined and posted just one time saying that there was a Nova Scotia Tolling Retriever in the pound down south of me. I had been thinking about a Toller as an option for a duck dog because I am a sucker for red dogs and then that post pops up and it was like HEEEEEEEEECK YEAH I am interested. I got all the info I needed and I headed down to the pound to meet him. He was picked up on the road by animal control and he was somewhere in the 18 month age range. As I said, I'm a sucker for red dogs and before I knew it he was mine and I was his.
He entered my life just as I was graduating college and he was my first dog of my own. I still worked as a lifeguard and since he was crate trained, I could take him to work with me and then when I got off work we could go to the beach and work on training stuff and just have a good time on the beach. I learned a lot during that summer. He taught me a lot. And I taught him a lot. He went from a sweet dog with no manners to speak of to a dog that I was quite proud of. He came to me terrified of car rides but very early on I spent a weekend teaching him that trucks were okay to be in and they were not scary places. They were fun. From that weekend forward, he became a joy to be in the truck with. All summer we worked on basic manners first on the leash and then off as well as duck dog stuff, including manners in a canoe, taking hand signals and marking. We were inseparable.
And lordy did he love a dummy.
Unfortunately, throughout the summer I came to find out that he was gun shy, noise shy, long item shy. Who knows what happened before I got him but whatever it was, I learned he would never make me a duck dog. I didn't know enough when I first went to look at him to even think about checking to see if he was noise shy. I was disappointed but there were so many other things that we could do together. And we did for the next thirteen years we had together.
He became my beach buddy. There wasn?t a shorebird that he could see that he didn't try to catch. He especially loved the little ones.
He became my scouting buddy.
When I got into turkey hunting, he would go turkey scouting with me too. We had many enjoyable walks through the woods looking for turkeys. He was my lucky charm. The days I took him, we always found lots more turkeys than when I went solo. And since my turkey woods were about 3 hours from my house, he made a great little heater at night when we stayed the night and slept in the truck so that we could scout for two days. He was an awful deer chaser and good lord did he have a grudge against armadillos. There wasn't an armadillo that he would give a pass to if he saw them. They always stayed just out of reach though. It drove him nuts and gave me many smiles to watch him try.
My boy sure loved the water and he loved to play. And oh boy did he suffer through some truly awful hair cuts. I will never make a good living as a barber. Luckily, I had someone who would help me from time to time when she took pity on Kenzie and my awful trim jobs.
He was quite a sociable fellow and enjoyed his four legged family as much as he enjoyed his two legged family. And I do believe that the addition of B to his life helped keep him young. He always was bummed when B went home or we had to leave B's house to go home.
When I moved to Tallahassee I learned to resign myself to the fact I couldn't have flowers in the front yard with him. We shared a major love of flowers. He tended to show that love though by rolling in them and smooshing them. Something about the front yard flowers was like catnip for him. It drove me crazy at the time but now I miss it more than I ever thought I would.
The curse of being owned by a good dog is watching them age and sometimes that process isn't kind. Kenzie dealt with hip arthritis though was surprisingly mobile and then the last few months watching him with dementia was heartbreaking. To the end though he loved the beach, a good butt rub, his dummy and my flowers. And of course his pack.
Friday it was time to let him go. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do but perhaps one of the kindest things too. I like to think that he is waiting for me to join him so that we can go on more grand adventures. He brought me many smiles, tons of joy and much comfort throughout his life.
I miss you more than I can say and love you more than I ever thought possible Kenz. See you later....
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