Recently I pulled the CD out and took a look at the pictures again – it brings equal doses of laughter and tears as I think of the times we spent at Rick’s with Tucker, the way he loved to run through the studio to say hi to everyone – the way he’d go up to greet the models, even when they were in a state of undress, and most surprised by a typical Vizsla “cold nose” greeting. When there were children getting shots in the studio, they would play with Tucker and he would always put up with their playing, at least for a little while.

These shots are just a small sample and feature Nancy and Tucker in a more personal setting.

Tucker obviously enjoying the modeling, is putting up with a little hi-fiving, sure that a treat will be offered for him doing his neat little trick.

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After doing his trick, Tucker decides that a treat must be near and pushing his cold wet nose in to find the treat that is obviously being held back, Nancy feeling the heat, keeps the treat hidden and tries to get some more poses out of Tuck.

As Tucker gets more insistent, Nancy decides that keeping the treat out of reach would be the best move, seeing the treat being held high so as to keep it away from him, Tucker starts to re-think his decision to be a model, there seems to be a lot of tricks, with very little chance of treats, and then he hears the human models talking about starving themselves to keep a tight body… hearing how models eat, and what they eat, Tucker is worried…

And then, after hearing that to be a model, he must keep a svelte figure, he must eat very little, he must purge whenever he eats too much, he decides that he must get the treat right away… and finally getting the treat – Tucker quickly finds out that it is a veggie treat, and definitely not to his liking…

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Clearly, Tucker has made a mistake… starving himself, eating veggies all the time, sticking his paw down his throat, he has made a mistake, he was thinking of something else all together… yes, he knows what he really wants to be… a food taster!, that is what he wants to be, a FOOD TASTER must be the best job of all.

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These have turned out to be some of our favorite pictures with the Tuck-Man and he fell into the part of being our little model for the day. Nancy and I both got our pictures separately with our little guy, and then we, of course, go pictures with the three of us – Tucker was a gem, posing for us and generally putting up with the silliness of sitting indoors and having a flash go off in his face for hours.

Rick has invited us to do a posing with the pup named Bodi-O, and we have to just get our butts over to the studio to get the first of our series of memory makers with Rick and Bodi – like kids, they grow so fast and one day you are looking back and wondering where all the time went.

We all roll our eyes, laugh at the stupidity of the animal in front of us, and go back to trying to figure out how we could have spent so much money at the holidays!!!

Now, I ask you, which breed here is the stupid one? Which one of us needs to have our heads examined and be “rehabilitated”?

Tucker loved the paper rolls, you could toss it on the floor up in the third story bathroom and he would come flying up the stairs from the first floor to attack the toilet paper monster, he would carry around his prize kill until all had a chance to see, and then he would lay down and tear it to pieces. We loved to watch him, he loved the show as well, and still 2 months after his passing we find ourselves throwing the roll on the floor and waiting for the storm to come.

This is one of the traits that Bodi didn’t pick up from Tucker, he will just watch it hit the floor and walk away, wondering what all the fuss was about a stupid toilet paper roll, and then he’ll casually pick up Nancy’s bra and walk away with it, with that gleam in his eye, swearing that there is no way he is going to let this unholy monster get to us… and all of his new toys that we were dumb enough to bring home for him…

]]> http://www.thegooddogblog.com/2009/10/24/the-joy-of-the-toy-or-whos-the-stupid-one-now/feed/ 3 http://www.thegooddogblog.com/2009/10/01/tucker-and-his-love-for-old-cars/ http://www.thegooddogblog.com/2009/10/01/tucker-and-his-love-for-old-cars/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 Nancy http://www.thegooddogblog.com/?p=466 Tucker enjoyed every moment that he was allowed to spend with us, and we took advantage of that by taking him everywhere that we could.  I found these older pictures of a day that we took Tuck to a British Car Show and had to share them… The best part is that Nancy doesn’t even know that I found these, and I can assure you that she will be quite surprised, quite happy to see these, and the tears will flow again.

We have a 67 MGB-GT that we used to take Tucker out in, a little small, but he had no problem fitting in back and would lie down and relax for the drive. Tucker was a good sport, as long as he could be with us.  We would take him to the car shows and take him around as we checked out the cars.  He was the greatest at these events, we could have him off leash and he would never bother the cars, when we were getting up close we would tell him to wait and he would either sit or stand where we told him while we got close to the cars to look at them, of course if someone – especially carrying some food – came up to see him, he would break his concentration and become the life of the show, but, he never, ever would get near to the cars in a way that would damage them.

This was taken at a British Car Show, back in 2005, that we used to go to all the time, down near the water, away from the busy streets.  Tucker, as usual, was the star of the show and everyone wanted to come see him.  Most people had no idea what kind of dog he was, and we’ve heard the old “it must be a red Weimaraner”, “that’s a red Doberman that they didn’t crop the ears on” and “The ridge on that Rhodesian Ridgeback doesn’t look right”, so we felt very good about letting them know that Tucker was a Vizsla, which always brought a look of confusion. Then we would tell them he was a Hungarian Pointer, which usually satisfied them enough to quit asking.

At this show our friend Karen had her newly restored Sunbeam Alpine which was getting a lot of admiring glances.  She asked us to see how Tucker liked the car and whether he would like to get in, and once Tucker was satisfied that this was indeed a Sunbeam Alpine and not the Sunbeam Tiger (since no real dog would be caught having pictures taken inside a Tiger), he quite enjoyed getting in and having a few pictures taken.  Everyone loved the mini show inside the car show, most of all Tucker since he got a lot more attention.

Of course, the fact that we quite often brought a picnic with us to these events made Tucker even more excited. Tucker had no problem making us feel bad by staring at our food after he scarfed his own down, knowing that if he did a good enough job we would give in and he would get a sample. This, at the time, made us feel that we weren’t doing him any good by letting him taste our food, but now we wouldn’t have traded that bonding for anything – memories are funny that way.

So, enjoy the pics, enjoy the story, and remember – take the little guys with you when you get a chance, they enjoy being with you, and the memories are priceless.

Bodi and the Bling!

Check out our little Bodi!  We will now call him, “Mr. B” (like Mr. T)!  I love this pic… he is so cute.

Jim thought it would be cute to put the different chain collars we had for both of the boys, on him.   He now wears Tuck’s chain… as it is the only one that fits him!

Bodi was a “little chubby” when we first got him.  In fact, we used to call him “Sumo Bodi”!  He has lost a total of 20 lbs. since we adopted him 7 months ago.  So each collar we bought for him, got way too loose.   Tuck’s collar is now the perfect fit for him.

We brought the little “poop” home on February 16th, 2009.  He turned 3 on March 4, 2009.  Jim & I have come to the realization, that Bodi is still a pup!!  We have already instilled so much training (and love of course) into him, that he sometimes comes across as an older dog.   He is very smart and very loyal, already.    He is also… extremely energetic (that’s where the puppy in him comes out)!  As we love all three of these traits (having had that with Tuck for 12 years), it’s the energy of a puppy that amazes us.

Tucker still had that “puppy” energy, up until his 12th birthday, just this past June.  He had the same enthusiasm as he did when he was Bodi’s age.  His mind was very much there and very much willing… unfortunately, his body was starting to tire out.  Not moving as good as he used to… but with our help (lifting him onto the bed and into the Jeep and Truck) he stayed strong!.

Tucker had a tremendous influence on Bodi.  Bodi picked up the mature, refined energy from Tuck and Tuck picked up some of the youthful, pent up energy that Bodi  often exhibits!  The two were very good for each other and brought so much to the table, to enrich each others lives.

Our little Bodi O misses Tucker terribly… and often looks for him throughout the house…wondering when his big brother is going to come home, so he can take the toy out of his mouth!!  He misses that little game that they used to play… and we miss seeing it.

As time goes on,  we are healing… with the help and love from our little Bodi O!!

I just wanted to put up a little remembrance post, a little touch of Tucker’s love, companionship, incredible temperament, loyalty, great nature…, well, just a touch of Tuck-a-poo.

Tucker was, for 12 incredibly short years, our little guy, he was there whenever we needed him, was our companion, would put himself between us and harm (as we would do for him), he was there, alongside me, comforting Nancy when she went through her cancer, he went with us on trips to comfort us and my Father when my Dad was dying of cancer, he was there with us to carve pumpkins, to cut Christmas trees, to hang out at car shows, he was there when we had good times celebrating, was there to comfort us when we had bad times, and was there when we just needed that warm body to hold on to.

We never went anywhere that we either took Tucker, or wished that we could have taken him, whether it was to the office, to friends houses, on trips to Las Vegas, cruising the sand dunes up at Pismo or up to Lake Arrowhead for the weekend. We never worried about introducing him to people, since to Tucker, if they were a friend of ours, they were a friend of his. He trusted us completely, and we trusted him completely, and I don’t think anyone who was ever around Tuck wasn’t touched by his beautiful soul.

Tucker was one of those dogs that seemed to never be happier than when he was with either Nancy, myself, or both of us. He truly came into his own and never looked more majestic than when he was with us, showing us off, or just hanging out. Nancy and I were also blessed in the fact that Tucker never chose one of us over the other, never took one of us as his “Master”, he always shared us, to the point that he would move from one sleeping point on the sofa to another 4 – 5 times a night, just to share his love with us and not spend too much time with just one of us.

As Nancy has said lately, “I know that time heals and it gets better, but the longer he is gone, as more and more time passes… the more I miss him”, and it’s true – since we did so very much with him, spent so many years with him in our hearts, we truly can’t look anywhere without seeing his spirit running around us, without thinking of him grabbing a toy and talking to us, without thinking of all those moments that we shared with him.

Lately we have been going to some of the special places that we shared with Tucker, we are sharing them with Bodi, and we are spreading a little bit of Tuck’s ashes. These are the beginning of the memories that we will be sharing with Bodi, of the companionship that will be forged by the three of us passing through these hard times, and sharing the beautiful memories.

So, hopefully things will get easier, as time goes by, hopefully the hole in our hearts will start to heal. By writing these memories down we don’t want to bring anyone down… we just want to share our “little guy” and our memories with everyone who knew him, and we want to spread a little of what Tucker was, and still is to us, to people that didn’t have the chance to get to know him.

[View with PicLens]

It’s strange, but I think there are healing properties that you get when caught by the sunbeam – even if you are wide awake and excited, slip into a sunbeam and you are suddenly relaxing, feeling the warmth and healing, your cares and worries seem to slip further into the background… all for the little beam of light.

Tucker and Bodi both lived for that beam – they could be running across the bed, playing in the hallway, whatever – and the beam would just reach out and grab them, throw them to the floor and beat them into a beautifully comfortable submission. We always laughed at the vision of these big, beautiful boys, trying their hardest to keep their eyes open – their heads bobbing up and down as they try to fight it, but eventually giving in and letting the sunbeam drag them into a deep sleep.

Some of our favorite pictures of Tucker and Bodi have happened because of the sunbeam monster, shots of them sleeping, or very nearly sleeping, with the perfect light and shadow playing across their features, it brought out the majesty of these dogs, and their colors are warmer and more intense then ever.

Of course, these shots, being the last morning with Tucker, are even more beautiful then ever for Nancy and I. Luckily every day we are greeted by the vision of Bodi fighting the sunbeam monster – and losing – as I am writing this, I watched Bodi walking down the hallway and the sunbeam grabbed his butt and threw him to the floor… after a good walk in the hills with Nancy this morning – he really didn’t have a chance against the beam… ahhh, realistically, he never did, and never will.

Tucker and Me Getting Some ShutEye

I laugh sometimes at the emotions that we feel from losing a dog, how we can be so torn up, how we can be hurt even more from the loss of Tucker then we are in the loss of a family member.  But I know that dog people understand the loss, the love of a companion and best friend, the closeness that comes with spending virtually every moment, for 12 years, with something that you have raised from a puppy, have trained to be the very best that he could be, have had him love you completely and unconditionally, have watched him step in front of a Rottweiler twice his size when he felt that there was a threat to his family, and have put yourself on the line if you felt he was threatened in any way.

Tucker was never just a dog to us, was never just thrown in the backyard to take care of himself, from the day he came home he was a member of our family, a member of our life, and a huge part of our hearts, and even though the healing has begun, and we know it will only get better, we never want to forget all the silly things Tucker did, we never want those images of him walking the trails in front of us to fade away, we always want to remember all of the good, the sweetness, and the love that he brought, and we hope that you readers won’t mind our little remembrances of Tucker to go along with our new memories that are being built everyday with Bodi.

Tucker and Me - Sweet Dreams

They say that time heals, and hopefully the healing has begun in our family.

Since we all lost Tucker, Nancy and I have been a mess, the slightest thought of Tucker, which are always there since we took him everywhere, would bring tears to our eyes, the mention of the loss to a friend or loved one would bring all to tears, the hearts in this house were torn apart. We tried to make sure that Bodi’s life was interrupted as little as possible, not wanting to bring grief on him for something he had no hand in… But Bodi was feeling the hurt as well, while around the house he has been as clingy as possible, following us from room to room, waiting for us outside the door if we need a little privacy. Even stepping outside to the back yard, Bodi has calmed his hunting instincts down a few notches, and at times he would make a quick beeline, do his thing, and then run right back to stand with us on the back steps.

The toys and stuffed animals have gone untouched, the squeakers left inside the stuffed toys instead of torn from the stuffing as soon as possible, the limbs left to flop for another day. The pillow that had come to our house with Bodi has gone untouched, the stuffing left intact, the pillow un-violated in Bodi’s slightly perverse fashion.

Our home has not been the same…  But over the last few days…

Bodi has started to come into his own, it may sound silly, but since Bodi was immediately placed into his position in the pack when he entered our home, and he understood it fully – we rarely had any problems from the day he joined our pack.  If anything, over the last few months, Bodi had been even more careful around Tucker, even when we took them to the park to play with all of their friends, Bodi would always be watching out for Tucker – he would run and play , but he was always running back to check on Tucker, to lick his face, or to just stand next to him.  Bodi was a little abrasive with some of the dogs, especially the smaller ones, and we were concerned about that.

Bodi Showing Us All How To Work

Since the day that Tucker passed on, Bodi has been with us almost 24 hours a day, luckily I can bring Bodi on my daily excursions to work, something that I had done quite often with Tucker, and he has stepped into that role completely. He runs down the halls to greet everyone when he comes in the door, he crashes out in the chair that Tucker used to sleep in, and he gladly spends the entire day with us. Bodi has been much easier with other dogs, even the small ones, and the dogs that he had small skirmishes with don’t seem to bother him as much.

And, since yesterday, Bodi has started to pick up the toys, bringing them to the bed at night, even playing with them for small periods of time. Nancy and I can actually talk about Tucker without a box or two of Kleenex always standing by, although the deeper emotions still bring the floods. We can take Bodi for a walk and not spend the entire time wondering how we are going to get through it.

So, the healing seems to have started, and hopefully as time passes, the pain will slip into the background, and the memories will pile up with Bodi, to join the ones that we have already stockpiled of Tucker… We’re sure that Tucker wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Tucker, After Being Caught By The Sunbeam

This is a post that I had started back in May… I thought that it had started to flow to melodramatic and set it aside… But now it seems kind of prophetic. I’m not going to finish the post, just wanted the picture and the feeling to be shared.

We miss him every minute of every day, we know things will get better – but damn. the hole in our hearts is big.

We thank god for all of our friends, and for the dear, dear love of Bodi, and soon the mood of the blog will move forward, but in the meantime, please bear with us, and enjoy the love that we have for our little family.

***** Original Text *****

So Tucker is going to be 12 this year, very soon as a matter of fact, and he has been slowing down a little over the years.

We always let him jump up into the trucks, even our M715 which is about a 3 1/2 to 4 foot jump for him into the seat and back down, he always jumped into bed etc… About a year ago he started to have to work a little harder to make the jumps, sometimes he would only make it half way up onto the bed and have to try again. For the last year or so we have stopped him from doing all of the jumping figuring that would be a little less strain on his joints. He has taken easily to just putting his front feet up on the item that he is getting on, or into, and then we lift his butt up for him.

So now he for the most part doesn’t…

Tucker and Bodi's picture on his last morning

With a heavy heart and deep sorrow we have to say that we have lost our best friend for the last 12 years, Tucker.

It came much, much faster then we could ever imagine and has thrown us for a big loop.  In three days we went from playing out in the hills with Tucker, to Tucker losing his appetite, getting foggy in his actions, to finding out that he is sicker then even his Vet could imagine.

Our normal Vet couldn’t figure out exactly what was happening, but luckily our good friend and partner, who is a Vet, quickly made a decision that made sure that Tucker would be able to leave this life without any undue suffering. So, please – if any of you are going through something similar, please don’t be afraid to ask a second opinion, it could make a big difference in the outcome of your best friends life.

It was one of the easiest decisions that we have ever made, to allow Tucker to not suffer after we heard the bad news, and it has been one of the hardest things we have ever had to do, to not see him running around the house, to not have him set his front paws on the sofa and wait for us to help him up, to know that he wont be sliding up next to us in bed and waiting for us to scratch his head.

Tucker - Hard at work in the office

Luckily we can remember all of the good times that we had with Tucker, and how close he and Bodi had become since we surprised him and brought Bodi home. Bodi knew something was up, he had been more careful then ever over the last few weeks, sleeping close to Tucker, and Tucker had become even more tolerant with Bodi, allowing Bodi to lay his head across his back and coming over to sleep next to him on the sofa. Tucker and Bodi had become each others protectors, Bodi was there to check Tucker out every time that he slipped and fell, every time that he hurt himself while playing, and Tucker was there every time that Bodi got in trouble, which is quite often, (but luckily he is never too badly in trouble).

So, we can be thankful that Tucker picked us out all those years ago, joined us on this journey, never lost his love for us, always had our love for him, and was able to leave us peacefully, painlessly, and with the joy in his heart that he will see us again. Tucker can rest peacefully knowing that his dear friend Bodi can help fill that incredibly large hole in all of our hearts, and that he touched many peoples lives through his completely unconditional love for us and our life.

Thanks to all who have been there for us, to Tiara for allowing us to start this journey with this incredible dog, and to Dr. Berry for allowing us to let Tucker go with dignity and love.