The ride home from Narnia

We left Narnia in the early afternoon and headed home with Isaac on the Kurgo zipline in the back of the truck. It was hard driving away without his brother William but I knew he would get a good home. He was going to be big and beautiful and was very sweet.

 

Little curious

 As the trip went on Isaac got a bit bolder and made his way up towards the front.

Whats up here

Hi

Curious Monkey

Are we there yet?

I think I am going to be OK

The clover does it!

Playing with Isaac and William although fun was also upsetting as it sparked many memories of Tonka as a pup. I had posted the pics of the day on social media and people were posting back telling me I should get a puppy. Now if you are a dog lover you always want a puppy - even if you don't need a puppy. The minute you get near one and smell that puppy breath and feel those soft little puppy pads you immediately fall in love and want to take it home. I did not want a puppy, I wanted my Tonka back. I will always want my Tonka back. I can't make people understand that, even some people I consider "dog" people don't understand my complete loss at losing my son.
My friend CM and I made the trek back to Narnia on September 27th to help groom and walk the beautiful dogs at AGPR. It was CM's birthday so we made a day of it and when we got to the rescue I took her back to see the boys. As we walked back to the kennel I happened to look down and right in front of the two goofballs was a four leaf clover.

William and Isaac

...who put that in front of Isaac's Kennel

 

William on my head and Isaac in my lap

Isaac!

CM and Isaac

We spent a good bit of the day brushing and walking dogs. Some are old friends like Keesa who has been there since before I started volunteering. Others were fairly new to AGPR but still older dogs that enjoy being fussed over. In the back of my mind that damn clover kept popping up.

Now CM is one of those people that will go a little overboard when ever you mention something. If you say you want a new pair of shoes then you should have 3 new pair of shoes all in different colors. So when I said something about the clover and maybe Tonka was trying to tell me something she immediately went to "you should take both William and Isaac home". To which I replied "I am getting too old and too beat up to take care of two puppies".  She of course volunteered to get up early every morning and help which set me into hysterical laughter. CM never gets up early and will be late to her own funeral.
The day went on and we went back to see the boys and again Isaac thought I was the greatest toy ever invented. Now puppies always have a better shot at getting adopted so I knew these guys would find a home but I kept thinking of that clover.
After Tonka passed I had a discussion online with a friend about how if I ever decided the time was right to get another Pyr it should probably be another special needs dog. Her answer was priceless she  responded simply "they are all special needs - they need a home".
So was my Pyr Angel Tonka pointing me in the direction of one of these puppies? The answer seemed to be yes and Isaac was my new best friend so I pulled Victoria the rescue director aside and we had a chat about it. I found myself filling out an adoption application and writing out a check to take him home. I do believe Tonka orchestrated the whole thing.

Home to Narnia

The Thursday after Tonka passed I decided to go "home" - home is Tonka's rescue at AGPR. It is off of an exit ramp labeled Varina but I always think of it as Narnia - Narnia the magical place that gave me my magical boy.
I used to try and go at least once a month to help out and that is how I met my boy and the journey started. With all of his challenges that seemed to pop up every year our trips to "home" and to different events to support them waned. I am sure my boy had a hand in pushing me into the series of events of the day. Maybe he was sending a "hey mom wake up out of the pity party and get to helping" message! A disabled dog becomes your entire day and you don't mind - it’s just reality -the routine is set and you become one, and to lose that routine and that other half of you really does set you adrift. Tonka loved everyone and everything and was always laughing always happy and I suppose he was pushing me to get back to doing the same. I passed a sign on my trek south that made me smile and if he had been in the truck we would have definitely talked about it and made a date to come back and check it out.

The rest of the trip did not go as well.  I made a stop at a shelter holding a 3 or 4 year old girl who had been turned into the night time drop box about a week before. I'm not going to go into details but you can see that the state that this poor sweet, sweet pyr was in was both incredibly sad and incredibly maddening.

Piper

I had been surrounded in a bubble of people who were all good caring humans and had pushed back the horrible reality of the type of people that are the reasons rescues exist. I had never forgotten that there are so many animals in need - it is one of the reasons my friend Gina and I created companion bridge but I had sort of been dulled to the magnitude of the problem. This little girl was a wake-up call for me. She didn't even have a name when I picked her up so when I called Gina to tell her about this poor girl she came up with the name "Piper".
I called AGPR and told them she was not doing well and we decided it was best to go straight to the vet.

The little girl Piper did not make it - she died at the vets in my arms. My only solace is that we had given her a name and a car ride with stories and songs of Tonka. She had people with her at the end that cared about her and told her it was OK and to go find him at the bridge.

 
I did finally make it "home" and got to hang out with my old friend Mr. Bean and play with 2 very cute puppies one of which had the markings of Myatuk and the mustache of Tonka.

I spent a great deal of time with some of the rescues that had been there for a long time, especially my boy Beanie. Beanie was the first Pyr I ever knew in a set of wheels and was the reason I knew Tonka would be OK in them.

Beanie

Isaac

Isaac and his brother William were 2 of 4 puppies that were found under a ladies porch in the same county that Tonka came from. Isaac thought I was the greatest play toy ever but William was a little more reserved.

William

Cuties

I left there with dirt, dog slobber and pyr hair all over me... It was a sad but OK day!

The Decision

I have decided to write again.
Those of you that followed the Journey of Tonka might be interested in this blog, or you might not. There will only ever be the one Tonka and he was truly magic. The decision to write again came to me as I was walking and talking with my little man, Isaac. He is a small Pyr, only 80lbs and has some very odd habits but he is very a good listener. We were walking and talking and he was grabbing up sticks just like Tonka and it hit me that Tonka gave me this goofball for a reason and maybe I should start figuring out what that reason is. So my thought is if I write things down along the way then maybe it will become clear to me.
I hope you follow along if for no other reason than this little monkey is cute and there will be pictures to make you smile.   :-)

AP