To Leash or not to Leash

Tucker was not on a leash at the time of the accident and had indeed run into the road. Yes, I do feel that keenly and I wish every single day that I had had him leashed. But I did not and here is why:

I live on a residental road in a very good school district. We have tons of kids in our neighborhood who play outside and who have been known to chase a ball into the street. The majority of our neighbors drive slowly and carefully because of this. In fact one of the reasons the entire neighborhood is up in arms about Tucker's death is that it could have been any one of their kids. The driver never even saw him! She was not paying attention while speeding through a residential neighborhood. We have witnesses who can verify this. There were no skid marks and when she first hit him, the first thing she said is that she did not even know she hit anything (despite the fact that everyone within a reasonable range heard the collision - even in the house). She stopped because all of these people came screaming out of our garage because their friend and companion had been hit.

Second - Tucker was an extremely well trained dog. No matter what, he would stop when I told him to stop. He walked at a heel, did not chase animals while out walking with me (he loved to chase squirrels while not with me), and I literally could throw a ball to this ball crazy dog, let him run three or four steps and say, "Tucker, sit." And that furry butt of his plopped immediately to the ground. I did not think I had to worry about him. I was wrong, and I regret that to this day.

Thirdly - this was a neighborhood dog. The 7 year old boy next door played with him, the 9 year old down the street did as well. The poor man who had suffered massive brain trauma and has no short term memory, remembered Tucker, and came down daily to see him. Everyone knew where Tucker lived.

The lessons to be learned from this are two fold. First and foremost - it's YOUR duty as a driver in a residental neighborhood to drive slowly and be fully aware of everything around you. Don't daydream, don't chat on the cell phone, don't try to change the CD in your dash or fiddle with your radio buttons. Drive. You car can be a weapon.

Second - even if your dog is thoroughly trained - make sure there is nothing like a ball, a squirrel or anything, that can pull him away from you when you are not aware. It's not worth it and even your neighbor, who knows that there's a big beautiful dog that lives at your house, might miss him if he sneaks off without you knowing.

My Dear Tuckerboo, we miss you

An article ran in the San Jose Mercury News today on Tucker. It spoke of his life and his death and the way it affected a neighborhood. For some reason the editor saw fit to run it on the front page. Most people I know do not get as nice an obituary, but he deserved it. He truly was a once in a life time dog.

What's interesting to see is the reaction of so many people to this story. Most are wonderfully caring and supportive but some question the right of a mere dog to inhabit the front page of a newspaper - afterall, a dog is not a capable of thought, of feelings.... They are not humans...

I feel very sorry for those who feel this way. They have never spent time with a great dog if they truly believe this. I know, without a doubt, that Tucker was capable of thought and even had the ability to reason. We were out training for search one day. He did area search, which is where a dog finds any person in a given area, but does not track one specific person. Scent is a funny thing. It acts a lot like smoke and is not always where one would think it would be. Well, the person was hiding up on a hill, in a tree. To one side of the person was a creek and on the other, a meadow. Dogs typically don't look up, which is why we place people in trees - so they HAVE to learn to look and sniff up. Well, Tucker found the scent cone in a weird place. He moved around a bit, sniffing, then stopped and stood still for a moment. Slowly he stepped forward, then slowly he stepped backward, sniffing the entire time. I could see him literally analyzing the scent. For a long moment he stood stock still, then he slowly turned his head towards the hidden person, and ended up staring them in the eye. With a jubiliant "WOOF!" he raced over to the person then back to me to let me know he had found her.

Sad sad news

Tucker was struck my a car today, March 20, 2007 and did not survive. He will be sore sorely missed. His family is absolutely devestated.

Oh this is FUN!!!

Well, mom's Half is in October - the San Jose Rock N Roll Half Marathon! We're training hard, and I'm enjoying it - after a few weeks of thinking all this running is pure torture!

We ran a 7 mile trail run yesterday, and I got to chase squirrels and smell all sorts of things on the trail. I really had a great time. I'm excited for the next long run of eight miles!!!

Oh the horror!

Hmm, not liking this development. Mom has decided that running first thing in the morning is the way to go. BEFORE BREAKFAST. How could she?! Well I went. Man that was hard. She has me run through the neighborhood which is fine, but then we go on this one trail and part of it has little itty bitty rocks on it that feel funny on my paws. I don't like that part. Anyway we did 5 miles today. She claims we're going to do more on Saturday, but that, at least will be AFTER breakfast.

Mom's Wild Hair Continued...

Mom signed up for a HALF marathon. That's not as bad, but I still have to run with her... On Saturday we ran 5 miles, on Sunday we hiked 5. I got nice and muddy on the hike, so mom came home and washed me. *grins* She calls me the incredible shrinking dog. I have so much fur that I look really fat dry, but as soon as I'm thoroughly soaked, I look skinny. I keep trying to tell her that with all of her activity I could not possibly be fat, but she doesn't believe me.

I'm actually looking forward to the training. Dad sometimes gets a wild hair will take Kimo and I on an 11 mile hike. I'm so tired when I get done that it's not funny. This should help.

Oh no! Mom's got a wild hair!

Mom got a wild hair and decided that we need to train to run a marathon. Who the heck is she kidding? I think she can run about 4 miles without dying. She thinks she's going to run 26.2?!? Yeah, right. And of course, she thinks that I should run with her. Now why is it that the human decides to do these crazy thing, and the dog has to simply go along with it? We need equal rights here! What if I don't want to run a marathon?!?!

There's a TREE by my crate!!

People certainly act oddly this time of year! Mom is running around singing these weird songs that make her get all choked up and even dad is singing sometimes - although I know I sing better than dad does! Just the other day, mom drives the wrong car (you know, I get so used to my people driving certain cars that when the wrong person gets out of a car, I sometimes get surprised into barking at them) and comes back with a huge tree on TOP OF THE CAR!!! She then spends some time taking it off the car, and of all things, carries into the house by where I sleep!!! She then puts it into this bucket-like thing that makes it stand up. And she leaves it right by my bed! I could barely nose my way into my house! Well, I got into my house and it was kind of nice as I felt as if I were outside all night long, smelling this nice smell.

The next day she moves it into the family room and she put lights all over it! Then she and my sisters put balls on it (I can't even play with THOSE balls, I tried to, but got yelled at *hangs head*), and some other things, then they all stood around it and made funny sighing noises. I don't get it. What IS going on?

A day in the life of a Furrball

I'm excited! Mom and Anna decided to stay at home with me rather than disappear for 9 or so hours the way the normally do five days of the week. I don't know where they go, but they should stay with me!

Some strange humans have come to run that noisy thing mom calls a vacuum. I let mom know they were up to no good by barking as loud as I could while she was watching tv. Then Anna tried to get me to stop barking by throwing my frisbee. I caught it, and I'm in the middle of killing it good! Just a few more chews and I'll have killed it. It gives me great satisfaction to know I finally got it!! I'm going to take it Anna to see if she'll help me kill it by grabbing the other end and tugging really hard. I think we can do it! Ooohhh, wait, have to go warn mom about the vacuum again, she's too busy playing with that gray box right now to know.... I'll be back!!!


Okay - I'm back and I had FUN!!! Mom put my search vest on me, the orange one with the little bell, and I got to play hide and go seek with Anna. She hides and I find her. And when I do and take mom to her, it's a big party of tug! My favorite game in the world (well, I like chasing the ball too!).

Hair Hair Everywhere!!!

Hey there! I'm Tucker, and I'm a furrball. Mom says I have enough furr for five dogs. It doesn't bother me, except in the summer when we go hiking. At least the hike we normally do has streams so I can roll around in the water and stay cool.

The first picture on this page is of me graduating from Puppy School. I was the only dog in the class who would sit still for a photo. Mom says I look very official and calls me "Ambassador Tucker of the Canine Brigade". I think I just look silly, but hey, if it makes my humans happy, then I'm all for it.

I miss my search dog training. I really liked looking (and sniffing) for lost people and I was really good at it. I just did not like to run through prickers as I have so much furr that they stick all over my paws. ICK!!! I have a lot of friends, and even have adopted Grandparents. Frank and Marilyn love to take me for walks during the day when mom and dad are too busy.