Welcome to my journey! This blog is about my adventures in dog training, pet therapy work, rescue work and life with my menagerie of animals. Enjoy!

Thursday, March 7, 2013


“Good” mourning

Isn’t that title an oxymoron, also possibly offensive? Yes, I suppose it could be perceived this way but I truly believe good can come form mourning.

In recent months, myself and some close to me, have had many reasons to mourn. I have mourned for my friends and their struggles and they have mourned for me and mine as well. There are lots of things one can mourn for, the passing of youth (you bet I’m mourning that), the growing up of our children, the loss of blissful ignorance (I am dealing with this as well in my eating habits!) and the loss of someone close to us.

Currently, I am mourning the loss of a beautiful dream I have had, since bringing Jojen home, of competing in all manner of dog sports with him. There were no limits in my imagination to all we could do together. Then…puppy strangles, then…a broken wrist, then…abdominal surgery, then…constant lameness on his previously broken leg, then…a grade three luxating patella; the last two of which will require surgery. He is 11 months old and already has a good amount of arthritis in the elbow of his previously broken leg. He is scheduled to have his knee surgically repaired next week. The elbow will be next, once the coffers have been replenished. I have sadly, but with a twinge of optimism, resigned myself to the fact that agility competition is probably out of our future. I love it and he loves it but the amount of pain it could cause him is not worth it to me. There are other sports that require less physicality but still require precision training and fun and I will try to focus on those. Rally Obedience is one as is the new sport of Rally FrEe. I still plan on getting his trick dog titles and perhaps even being able to do some freestyle routines and drill team routines.

My lesson in all this rests in his little red body that harbors no resentment, no sadness and no blame. He loves life still, even limping on two legs, he takes it all in and never lets it get him down. That is where my “good” mourning comes from.