Thurs., May 26, 2011 - A very special day

Note:  I started writing this post last Thursday, but am just posting it today.

Today, six years ago, Hardee joined our family.  It was one of the best days of our lives.  Hardee owns us, heart and soul.  He is our joy.  He is what sustains us.

The instant we laid eyes on Hardee, we fell in love with him.  We met Hardee's breeder at the Southern California Portuguese Water Dog Club's Independent Specialty dog show to pick him up.  He was 10.5 weeks, almost 11 weeks old then.  Hardee's breeder had shaved him down at 8 weeks, so here was this little brown and white pup with not much hair.  Still, he was the softest dog we had ever felt, and he was darling.  Because he was shaved down, everyone thought he was a Springer pup, and I had to keep telling them he was a PWD.

When we left the show to head home, which was only about an hour after we met Hardee, we stopped and ordered a pizza before we got on the freeway for the long drive.  We found some shade, on a very hot day, in the parking lot with a little strip of grass.  We set up our lawn chairs and ate, and fed Hardee.  After some drinks and a potty for Hardee, we set off for home.  Pizza was the first food Hardee ever ate with us.  We started his bad habits within a half hour of him being ours.  Just to top off his bad habits, we stopped in Baker on the way home and got fries to share with him.  When we got back to Vegas, we went by our friend's house to show him off.

It was Memorial day weekend, so Jim and I had the next 4 days off.  We spent those days getting to know Hardee.  We hung out in the back yard, took him in the pool, started potty training, found out he was small enough to go down our tortoise's burrow, watched his determination to do things, and grew deeper in love with him.  It was a blissful 4 days before Jim and I returned to work.  We tried our best to arrange schedules so Hardee was rarely by himself for long.

I can honestly say that Jim has loved our other dogs before Hardee, but he was never in love with them, until Hardee.  Jim was smitten, and it was very hard for Jim to be separated from Hardee on Jim's numerous deployments.  Between deployments, Jim and Hardee trained agility, and while Jim was gone, Hardee and I worked on obedience, rally, water and then tracking.

Why I bring up Jim and Hardee's agility training is because on this day, exactly 6 years after we picked Hardee up to join our family, Jim and Hardee earned their MACH (Master Agility Champion) at the same dog show that we went to when we picked up Hardee from his breeder.  It is a fabulous day, full of memories, and a day that Jim and Hardee have trained and competed for, for such a long time.  When Hardee was diagnosed last August, he only had 2 QQs, and he did the other 18 QQs with cancer, in between radiation, chemo, and ICU stays.  For those who know AKC and PWDCA titles, our boy is now CH MACH Vindouro's Built To Withstand VCD2 RAE MXF WWD GROM TDI.  I am so proud of my boys!!  There are just no words to describe how much this day means to us.  Currently, Hardee is ranked as the #4 agility PWD in the nation but that will change.

Hardee is doing as well as can be expected.  We are still doing all that love can do.  Besides the chemo he gets at home, we go again for I.V. chemo this Monday.  Keep the faith for Hardee.  Keep the paws up and savor the big chunks, as we did last Thursday.  Until then, it is all about joy and all about Hardee!!