This is from our good friend (and the boys vet):

“Here is my take on the matter:
Since Bodi’s injury, there has been some disruption to the dominance hierarchy in your household. I think Bodi’s behavior represents his attempt to re-establish his dominance. As long as no body is getting hurt, I would give it some time and let them work it out without your intervention. If the fighting occurs in your presence, let both dogs know that YOU are the top dog in the household. Put them both in their place and demand that they acquiesce to YOU.
— Dr. B”

Things are getting better slowly, there is still a bit of tension between them at times, but they are playing together more, allowing themselves to be together at times, and the hair takes a little longer to raise up.  A large part of the problem seems to be Oliver’s total lack of fear when it comes to pushing in front of Bodi to get his portion of love and petting, as expected, Bodi gets pissed at these times.  Before all of this happened Bodi would let Oli do this, but now he is quicker to lay into him.

Today Bodi and Oliver played in the yard for quite a while, as usual Bodi spends way too much time barking at Oliver, but Oliver’s speed keeps him out of reach (the benefit of being 15lbs. lighter LOL).

On the walks both are working towards backing each other up – watch out lizards.

We feel it will still take a while to get back to normal, but with a bit of work and controlling the energy everything will get better and these two pains in the butt will be living the good life again.

I know that the boys love each other, there are times that they show that, but at times, especially since the snake bite, things can get tense, and sometimes there is even an explosion or two to deal with.

We’ve had to separate the two on occasion as Bodi uses his size and strength to take away Oliver’s speed.  Luckily most of it has just been posturing as it sounds much worse then it turns out to be in the end, but we still worry.

Ever since the Rattlesnake episode Bodi has been, how do you say, a little off.  He gets quite a bit more tense with Oliver, and us at times, he seems to be more desperate about food, he just seems a little different… like I said, a little off.

Oliver has had more moments then usual where Bodi’s hair goes up and the whites of the eyes start to show.  Oliver has taken to playing by himself more, going into other rooms to find the sunbeam when Bodi is near, actually coming upstairs to sleep in the spare bedroom while I’m working rather then stay down in the living room with Bodi – whereas he was always hyper playful with Bodi and would crawl up onto Bodi to crash out in the sunbeam before the incident.

I feel sorry for both of them at times, Bodi because obviously something is going on in his head, and Oliver, because he has had to change his style to keep out of Bodi’s line of fire when things happen. We work with them all the time, walk them together, they sleep with us in the same bed – but there usually seems to be a little coldness in the air that just pops up in an instant… weird.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all Bodi, Oliver can still be a pain in the butt, stepping in front of Bodi to get love first, or to get out the door, or even food (which can really be dangerous since Bodi outweighs him by 15 lbs.), but Oliver has a tremendous amount of love inside the timid little needy Vizsla frame.

We still treat Bodi with the respect that the elder dog deserves, holding Oliver back at the door to let Bodi out first, giving Bodi his food first, always sharing the love between them, and will continue to do so, but I wish I had all the answers to this one, and could see what is going on inside those little red-heads.

Bodi hard at work proving once and for all that he can crash out just as fully as Tucker could, I’m in the chair editing a video for a client, while this bum-of-a-dog is crashed out, snoring, and doing those cute little Vizsla kicks while he chases Squirrels in his dreamy-dream land.

Just something to set the tone for the weekend!!!

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.

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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.

Bodi (in front) and Tucker out for walk

Bodi has been thrown for another loop, started a new family 6 months ago, now having his new best friend disappear from out of his life, then having to take the role of our canine emotional saviour.

Bodi is doing his very best, he normally is the happy-go-lucky boy that we are always trying to calm down just a bit, now he is much calmer, always stopping to look for what our next move is, looking for Tucker throughout the house and backyard frequently.

The toughest thing is when we feed him.

We had taught him right from the beginning that Tucker gets his food first and on his food stand, then Bodi would get his dinner in the kitchen – they eat at the same time, but even with Tucker starting first Bodi would always finish first and then stand by to clean anything out of Tuckers bowl that may be left (which usually was nothing).

Bodi sleeping in my office

Now we feed him at Tucker’s old food stand, and when we put the food down he runs back to the kitchen as he had been taught, and waits for Tucker to come in and start eating so he can get his food. It takes us a little while to coax him back to the food stand and convince him that it is his and he can start eating, he keeps stopping and looking around, sure that Tucker just hasn’t gotten there yet, and convinced that if he starts eating he will surely be in deep trouble – it is really quite touching, and slightly heart breaking.

Bodi is now the “man”, and we are laying a lot of love on him to help us to get through the pain… The wounds are still fresh and deep, the tears flow freely whenever we think or speak of Tucker, and I’m sure his little heart is feeling pangs of sorrow that his new-found brother has slipped out of his life and doesn’t seem to be there for him anymore.

We love Bodi with all of our hearts and we don’t plan on bringing another puppy into our lives for quite a while, we want more than anything to take the time to bond even more with Bodi, to not split our love with another dog, and to allow Bodi to become the very best Bodi that he can possibly be, we don’t want him to be another Tucker, that would be totally unfair to Bodi, and to Tucker’s memories, but we are excited to bring Bodi along to be his very best.

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.

Sunlight streams through window pane unto a spot on the floor…

then I remember, it’s where you used to lie, but now you are no more.

Our feet walk down a hall of carpet, and muteed echoes sound….

then I remember, it’s where your paws would joyously abound.

A voice is heard along the road, and up beyond the hill,

then I remember it can’t be yours….

your golden voice is still.

But I’ll take that vacant spot of floor and empty muted hall…

and lay them with the absent voice and unused dish along the wall.

I’ll wrap these treasured memorials in a blanket of my love…

and keep them for my best friend…

until we meet above.

Author Unknown