Votes: 426

Huck

Running for the blueberry clouds

More: When a friend mentioned a deaf dog needing a home, I went to meet him not knowing what a heeler was. Being deaf myself, I imagined we would learn to comprehend each other in a way that others couldn't hope to match. Huck jumped into the car and adopted me immediately, proceeding to turn my life around on its heels. We had countless adventures at home and abroad during our 8 years together, our language based on ASL built an intimate understanding that led to dozens of tricks, swimming, jumping, frisbees, running, biking, boating, surfing, and ski touring - a sparkling stream of memories and photos that now trails behind me to vanish beyond the horizon. Our story turned a somber page on Thanksgiving as hemangiosarcoma claimed his life a mere three weeks after his splenectomy, and one week after receiving the biopsy results. I had no idea how vicious or common this cancer was. I bought us a canoe last May on my 40th birthday trip to learn to fly fish and I never did find a rod or reel. We never got to see the snow this year. As a solo painting contractor, my workload was often overwhelming and I made the mistake of taking on too much, saying yes more to them than to myself. Now that I've lost Hucker, I don't want to keep going down that road and have revolted against the brush. I want to live the life of adventure that we aspired to and I want to figure out how. This photo was from one of our favorite trips, running to Lake Ann and back in July of 2018, past the rampart blueberry bushes along Swift Creek towards the most magnificent view of Mt. Shuksan we had ever seen. I send this to you because I would be honored for Huck to be your mascot for even a day. If not, he will be mine forever <3 Thanks for reading our story, hope your campaign helps many dogs because cancer gets the big fat one from me.
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