club9

Sweetie

April 2002 - March 27, 2017

I found young Sweetie at a shelter near Kinsale, Va. Elsa was hauled out at dry dock for the hull to be inspected for an insurance policy, and I happened to kill some time by visiting the nearby county shelter.
All the cages were full, and every dog was barking loudly except one in an upper right cage. He was leaning back against the wall with the worst posture, and just quietly looked at me.
I asked the warden about him, and was told that they called him 'Sweetie' because he never barked and was very polite. Told me that he was found in a ritzy neighbourhood near the river, and had been kept alive longer than usual because he was so young and sweet.

I filled out the papers, and took him to the marina parking lot. He was happy to be able to smell around the grass free from the jail, and did his business. I carried him up the 10' ladder to Elsa's deck, and then down below where I put him on the settee bunk where he stayed quietly watching me.

The next day after my hull inspection, Elsa was put back in the water while Sweetie waited in my van. When she was tied up in the slip, I went back to walk Sweetie down the dock, and he froze when we got near the water's edge. I could not force him with the leash to go any further than the dock's beginning.

Oh great! He's afraid of the water, and he's going to live on a boat? So I had to carry him the first few times up & down the dock.

He quickly got used to walking around the deck, and here he is laying in the main hatch watching me.

He watched me all the time no matter where I was on the boat.

He was a fast learner too. I was able to teach him sit, lay, gimmie paw, gimmie tongue, wave, stop, wanna go, blink and one that he taught himself -yawn. Sweetie yawned all the time, so I started saying 'yawn' when he did, and very soon I could make him yawn just by saying it.

Sit up

Yawn

Sit up & Yawn

Gimmie tongue

So far he was going ashore with me to do his business. One day though, we had just gotten back to the boat and he started to pee on the carpet. I immediately yelled NO PEE!, which scared him because I've always spoken very softly to him. I put him out on deck and closed the hatch. After an hour or so, I let him back in and he laid down very quietly. He learned 'no pee' very quickly and never peed on the boat again.

Now with the 'no pee' command, I also taught him not to pee on the dock or the dock pilings.

Snow was new to him, and he loved running around the decks eating the snow.

I learned another odd thing about my new little buddy. He would yelp really loud anytime I touched his ears. I could rub & pet any other part of his body, but his ears were off limits. I figured that some young rich brat had pulled his ears just to hear him scream. Probably why he ran away from his first family.

One day there were 3 little girls at the marina and they yelled 'oh what a cute little puppy'! Sweetie ran up to them wagging his tail and letting them pet him. Then a little boy ran up, and Sweetie ran away with a yelp.

Ah hah! A bratty little boy was the one that was abusing Sweetie when he was a pup. It took a few years before I could touch his ears, and even then he wasn't comfortable with it.

Spring time has come, and we sailed up North to Elsa's home port in Stafford. Sweetie wears his life jacket and has no problem with the boat's movement.

At my parent's house, Sweetie met my Sister's
doggie 'Misty', and he fell in love.

They would wrestle all around, and Sweetie would lick her all over including all of her orifices. Even inside her mouth.

He loved to slurp up milk so much that he really made a mess!
'Got Milk' mustache?

During the Summer months, I worked for other people building decks, sheds, additions & other things, and Sweetie would go with me to work. He liked to lay under my radial arm saw table and get covered in saw dust.

Here I build a Summer kitchen seen in the back with the brown roof. Sweetie always joins me in our after work fun.

The Summer kitchen is equipped with a grill, sink with hot & cold running water, a refrigerator and even a small dish washer. It took several weeks to complete, and Sweetie was with me the whole time.

All my customers really liked the sweet non-barking doggie.
But all wondered why I had named a male dog Sweetie.

Sweetie has really taken to Elsa. He thinks that it's his floating dog house now.

Summer is over, and we sail Elsa back down to my winter port of Port Kinsale. That is where I work on Elsa, and Sweetie remembered his home town immediately.

Chillin'

One day while we were below decks, the boat yard manager knocked on the hull. Sweetie yelled out this very deep and loud bark. That's the first time I've ever heard him bark! I was beginning to think he didn't know how to. Wow,, I have a watch dog after all.

Sweetie keeps watch over his domain.

And another winter comes to Port Kinsale.

\And another Spring we sail off to our Summer home port again.

This routine continues year after year. You never see me without Sweetie-muttskies.

During one fall, hurricane Ernesto grazed by and flooded the dock underwater by a few feet. This submerged the electric box and the stray current ate up Elsa's prop & shaft bearing with intense electrolysis.

We got Elsa towed down to Colonial Beach to get hauled out to replace
all the running gear plus I installed a new Hurth gear box.

We spent several weeks in Colonial Beach waiting for the tide to rise high enough to haul Elsa.

I think that's when Sweetie began growing gray hair around his snout. I know it was stressful for me during all the expensive repairs.

Old corroded prop which was the same size as the new one.

We have made a couple dozen boat trips in the past years,
which was not too bad for a dog that was afraid of water.

On September 8, 2016 I noticed that Sweetie had a bump under his right upper lip. I thought that it was an abscessed tooth, and took him to the vet. There she sedated him and found a mass. We scheduled an operation for the next day to cut it out and have it biopsied. Found out it was malignant melanoma.

I was crushed. She gave him 6 months to live. I went online to find that if his diet is changed to raw meat and given several vitamins including colostrum, I could extend his life a bit longer. But melanoma is a very aggressive cancer.

Now begins the long goodbye.

Six months later the mass had grown back so large that it was closing off his right nostril. And he had another mass that was growing in the back of his throat which made it hard for him to use his tongue properly. I had to spoon feed him by hand, and it took a very long time for him to lap up water.

Blood began oozing from his mouth, and was dripping everywhere. I had several old towels laid out to catch the snot and blood. Then it became difficult for him to breathe.

By the end, he wasn't able to lap up water easily, and he started getting weaker in his legs. The last morning he had a breathing attack where he could not breathe thru his nose nor clear his throat.

That's when I knew that I couldn't let him suffer any more.

I helped him into the van and drove to the vet. I had her come out to the car to give Sweetie a sedative shot to calm his nerves down. She told me that it would take 15 minutes to take effect, so I spent that time stroking him and speaking softly.
After 15 minutes, she summoned me in, and I carried Sweetie into the exam room. There I held onto his shoulders until his last breath.
That plus laying him down into his grave were extremely hard. I covered him with bubble wrap so that I did not have to see dirt going over his face. He left me on Monday, March 27, 2017, one month before his 15th birthday.

The boat feels so empty now....

Goodbye my Sweets