Last month our family lost a very important and furry member. Spruce drifted off to sleep for the last time on a Saturday afternoon. His humans sat with him thinking about all the joy he brought into our lives.
Never had I allowed an animal to live in my house. It’s not likely to ever happen again. The privileges that Spruce had and the role he played in our life weren’t based on my love of dogs. I like dogs but wouldn’t be classed as a “dog person”. The only reason I put up with a dog living in my house was because of the spiritual bond that developed between my son and that dog.
Spruce came into our lives as a bribe to get a five-year boy to voluntarily move from Australia to America. Admittedly, five-year-olds don’t get to vote on a relocation plan, but his buy-in on something as stressful and complicated made my life a bit easier. I do hard things as a hobby and any move is hard. International relocations are mind numbingly complicated and not having obstructionist/tiny terrorist rampaging through the house is a benefit. Dennis immediately started working on a list of characteristics that he wanted in his dog. He wanted stick chasing loyal companion that was brave enough to fight lions and would love Dennis more than anyone else. Spruce was a loving loyal companion, without an ounce of fight in his soul!
Once we got to Denver, I contacted my favorite breeders of Labradors, Rob and Denise Babcock. They had an adult male that wasn’t quite tall enough to be a show dog per AKC breed standard, so a well-bred, beautifully built, two and half year-old dog needed a pet home. The only glitch was that we were in Colorado and the dog was in Minnesota. My posse of problem solvers and I devised a plan for Spruce to hitch a ride with a Minnesota cowboy heading to Colorado with a truck and horse trailer. The Babcock’s handed-off Spruce to Cowboy Caleb. The plan was for Spruce to be crated and ride in the tack room of the trailer. When Caleb’s girlfriend Alie, met Spruce she decided, much to Caleb’s dismay, that Spruce was too sweet to ride in the trailer. Spruce rode next to Alie for the next 900 miles.
Dennis and I drove up to northeast Colorado to pick up his new pet. That day, cookies and beer were handed off to a kindhearted cowboy, and a little boy met his best friend. On the way back to Denver, I asked Dennis if he wanted to pick a new name for his dog. After a long a pause, he asked if we were Spruce’s Ever-Ever Family.
(In the adoption world, the term "Ever-Ever Family" is used to explain to young children that their new adopted family is forever. My son was adopted at age three and we chose not to change his first name because it was the name his birth mother had given him. We explained that it was important to keep a small part of what she had given him.)
After a very long pause and finding a way to swallow the giant lump in my throat, I said that we were Spruce’s Ever-Ever Family. Dennis locked eyes with me in the rear-view mirror and solemnly said “He needs to keep the name his other mommy gave him.” Thankfully I had tissues in my purse…..
I didn’t want to take on a puppy, but I had concerns about an adult dog not bonding with Dennis. Within a week, that concern was laid to rest. Dennis and Spruce quickly became the center of each other’s universe. In the ensuing years, the bond between boy and dog became indelible. My son struggled socially and had few human friends. Spruce was his constant companion. When Dennis was learning to read, Spruce sat next to him and hung on to every word uttered by his child. Adventures were limitless for those two. We met several of our neighbors as the result of the kid and canine shenanigans on our cul-du-sac. While we were pretending to take part in online school during the great pandemic, the dog was never more than a few feet from his master. The dog followed his boys every footstep. When Dennis was sick, the dog wouldn’t leave his side.
When we told Dennis that we were moving to England, the first words out of his mouth were “I’m not going without Spruce!” The words did not need to be spoken; the bond between the two was so strong that anyone who spent any time near them could see the connection.
An international relocation is complicated and trying in the best of circumstances. During a global pandemic, it was excruciatingly painful. Shipping a dog to England in the pandemic was nearly impossible. The fact that the dog is a ten-year-old Labrador, and his boy is struggling emotionally with the move as well as being separated from his faithful companion, left this mom with MANY sleepless nights.
We’ve all heard of plans A, B, C, etc... The shipping of Spruce reached plan L. Due to the need for humans to quarantine on arrival, it wasn’t possible for the dog to travel with us. There were only four U.S. airport flying pets during the pandemic. Chicago was the closest at a mere 1000 miles from Denver.
I lost count of the sleepless nights and silent tears I shed over trying to find a way to keep my son and his beloved dog safely together.
Plan L came about when my tribe came together over margaritas, when I lost my fragile grip on what was left of my sanity and broke down in tears. A group of bad-assed hockey moms and the world’s greatest neighbor cooked up a plan to get the dog to Chicago. We left Spruce with the neighbors Kim and Jim in Denver and hockey mom Margret would later drive Spruce to Chicago and hand him off to the pet courier. The courier processed all the blood tests and paperwork so that the hound could be reunited with his boy. Spruce flew Chicago to Amsterdam, where he overnighted in a “pet spa”. He then flew to Manchester, England where he cleared customs and was delivered to us in North Yorkshire. I had a regularly occurring nightmare of the dog dying in transit and my son losing his emotional touchstone. Thankfully those fears were for naught, and a boy and his best friend were reunited at the end of August.
The hound loved living in the English countryside. Off leash walks were his daily norm and he quickly made friends with a few of the local horses. He loved his giant thoroughbred friends. They would nuzzle and rub on him, and he would get in the pasture with them. Weirdly, he was completely bewildered by sheep. If we got within sight of them, he would get behind his humans literally using as human shields. He sometimes refused to go out our patio doors if there were too many sheep near the fence.
Spruce was well known in the village. It’s a very dog friendly place and he quickly learned who in the village might have a dog treat in their pocket. He would calmly walk up to them, then sit down and nuzzle their knees while waiting patiently for a treat. He even scammed belly rubs from movie star Matt Smith. He had a tab in the local pub in his name so that Dave and I could stop by on a dog walk and get a pint even though neither of us had a pence in our pockets.
At 14 and half years, the old guy had a good run. In the past year or two, he had developed arthritis in his hips and elbows, but that's the way of Labradors. He was happy and loving to the very end and I could never have dreamed of a better companion for my son. Dennis spent the day saying good bye to his best friend as we waited for the vet to arrive.
Spruce was cremated and the ashes buried in our garden. Dennis got to choose a plant to commemorate him. His first choice was a Bonzi tree because of how the Japanese culture valued age and wisdom. Bonzi’s aren’t viable in a North Yorkshire garden, so he choose a Japanese Euonymus. His comment was, “It’s still a Japanese plant and I like how they respect wise old people. Spruce was a wise old guy, so it just seems right”. There is no arguing with that logic.
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