Boating Dog?

In the middle of summer, it gets hot on Lake Ontario. Being the avid boaters that we are, we went boating on the bay on a Saturday and brought Tony with us. Now I'm no color specialist, but I'm sure being a black dog in the middle of summer is not fun. So, we anchored the boat and took Tony into the water for the first time. He's just a little puppy at this point but immediately we knew he was a water dog. As we sat on the swim platform with the dog sitting next to us we discussed how cool it was that we could bring him on the boat and that he loved the water so much. As soon as we said that, he jumped off of the swim platform and began swimming away from the boat! We were in water that was about 20 feet deep so it wasn't like we could walk out to get him and so my boyfriend jumped in and swam out to get Tony who at this point we could tell was losing steam. Well, he finally reached Tony and by the time he brought him back to the swim platform his chest was completely clawed up with puppy nail marks LOL! From that day on, whenever we took the dog we knew we'd be better off to anchor on the beach which brought a whole other onslaught of issues. Chasing seagulls, other animals and so on would become a common thing. But he was a sucker for a good piece of driftwood to drag around in his mouth and every time I see a piece I am reminded of him.

How do you pick out a puppy? My approach was the first puppy that came to me for attention would be the one I picked and what a great choice he was. Our friends had a litter of English Black Lab pups which upon seeing, I immediately new I had to have one but they wouldn't be available for a few weeks, so patiently I waited. My boyfriend had no idea that I was doing this and on the pick up day Tony made himself known. See, he was the runt of the litter getting pushed around by his bigger brothers and sisters who were after their mother's milk. He was so cute, he finally backed away when he realized he was getting leftovers, looked at me and came bounding over. He just wanted love and attention which I was all to happy to give to him and it was settled, he was coming home with me. Now I needed to break the news to my boyfriend who was busy helping our friend remodel his bar which was a few roads away from us. It was the middle of summer and the sun was shining brightly as I pulled into the driveway with the air filled with the sounds of circular saws and the hammering of nails. I picked up this little black bundle and walked in with him and then I heard those words that my boyfriend ended up eating. "What did you do?" "You know how many dogs I lost as a kid because of the road I lived on, I am not gonna go through that again." Everyone working there were our friends and were fighting to hold him and play with him. The pool table had recently been delivered and a long time trend began right there on the first day we got him. We put the quarters in the pool table, spread the balls out and put the puppy on the table. Well, away he went pushing balls around with his little nose until they were all in the pockets. Much to everyone's delight, Tony would continue to do this until he was to big to get up on the table and it's funny because after his death our friends still talk about that to this day. After some time of everyone playing with this dog that had no name yet, they started tossing out names. Blackie, Onyx, Rufus, and so on but all of the sudden my boyfriend was saying no to the names and that he was going to come up with something. The little guy was growing on him. We were huge NASCAR fans and I was dead set against it but we named him Tony. He had a Tony Stewart bandanna which I mentioned in the previous post that he'd wear, Tony Stewart collar and so on but in the end the name Tony really fit him. He turned out to be almost human and was really like our child deserving of a human name, not a made up dog name and would also become my boyfriends daily companion, going to work with him every single day of his life and becoming loved by all the customers. Funny how one little dog makes such an impact and there were many instances that I will be discussing throughout this blog about this dog's life. He was our life and I just want to share him with the world. This is my first blog and have no idea how to do this or get my blog out there to the public but will try, so if you are reading this I hope it will be as touched by stories of my dog like I was by having him in our lives. Thank You

Do you ever wonder what your dog is thinking? I wondered that very thing over the 9 years my dog was alive. He left this world in the Fall of 2009 and was the best little buddy anyone could ever have. He is greatly missed and thought of every single day which has brought me to blog about him. Over these past few months I found myself thinking back on various memories of him and wonder what he might have been thinking. Some of my assumptions make me laugh but I also can think of the times he was most likely mad, sad, confused and wondering what the hell was going on. Everyday I see little reminders of him all around. The piece of wood he chewed, that still has his teeth marks in it, his puppy collar, hair that keeps coming out of nowhere and just today I found his Tony Stewart bandanna that he used to wear around his neck when he was little. His ashes sit in an urn up high over where his bed used to be, adorned with paw prints with my boyfriends tennis shoe on top of it. This may sound strange but he slept with our shoes in his dog bed at night. His piece of chewed wood that was found by my boyfriend a few weeks ago sits next to him as well as the bandanna I found today. I am glad that we are finding all these little things from him. It's almost like he's still here in his own little way and I am thankful for it. I know we gave him a great life with lots of love, but still wonder what life looked like through his eyes. I will be attempting to figure this out through writing about him He was the best dog we've ever had and his name was Tony.