Stories about Chancey our Scottish Terrier

Chancey passed away on Tuesday, July 18, 2017. He would have turned 11 on August 8th. He had a rare form of skin cancer. When he was diagnosed in April of 2014 we were told due to the rapid progression of the disease he would only live 6 to 12 months. Well...he lived for 39 months and 16 days.

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This wonderful story was written on December 22, 2008. Scottish Terriers are know for being stubborn and that was the case with Chancey. Also, they are most frequently the dogs that bite judges at dog shows! But this wasn't true of our Chancey, he loved everyone he met. He was very sociable!

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Chancey, is the latest addition to our four-legged fur family. I dog-napped him this past summer while visiting a friend down in New London, Connecticut. She was dog-sitting him for a week while his family was on a business trip. They didn’t want him in the first place but their daughter did and then she moved to California and left Chancey behind. 

At the age of two: Chancey hated being walked so he pulled a great deal; he also had a great hostility of anything with wheels on it so he would charge at it while barking at the top of his lungs; he didn’t know any basic dog commands (sit, stay and do doggie commercials and bring home the mega bucks) nor was he potty trained. With that said, I wanted a better life for him. So I brought him home. Which then made him dog number three in a tiny house (1097 sq. feet) on a heavily-trafficked state road with no fenced-in yard. What was I thinking?

Episode #1 - I learned quickly that I was in way over my head having three dogs.The first hint happened when I took all three of them to the local dog park. I had Chancey on a leash but he was pulling so hard I let him off, which was a very stupid move on my part. Everything was fine until we met up with several groups of dogs. With all the doggie greetings involved, (barking, sniffing butts and a little bit of growing) he walked off with another group.

By the time I got my wits about me and had the other two dogs under my control, I realized that I was missing the newest addition. Yikes! I walked around yelling for him but had no luck. I took Chloe and Fast Eddie back to the Jeep and went searching for him. I was running around asking other dog owners walking their dogs if they had seen him. No luck! Finally, a woman with her own three dogs shows up with Chancey in tow. Yeah!!

Episode #2 – I didn’t have a tight hold on him while transporting him from the Jeep onto the kitchen porch. He quickly took off and headed East on Rt. 66 while running down the road using the double-yellow lines as his guide. With four knee surgeries, it is hard for me to move quickly much less run but run I did, and I scooped him up.

Episode #3 – We are back at the park and I’ve now learned to keep him on leash and use the Gentle Leader that a friend had given us. It was just the ticket when it came to keeping him from pulling and under control. We finished our morning walk and headed back to the Jeep. Both Fast Eddie and Chloe needed help getting up into the back. Then it was Chancey’s turn. My big mistake was removing the leash before lifting him up into the Jeep. He took off. I went after him leaving Chloe who jumped out of the Jeep with a fellow dog walker while Eddie was left in the Jeep. Right next to the parking lot is a large community garden which was in full bloom. Well, I couldn’t see him because he has such a low profile. His legs are only six inches long. He evidently returned to the parking lot where we reunited.

Episode #4 – A friend of ours came over for dinner this past fall. We were using a baby gate out on the kitchen porch to keep the dogs contained. In letting our friend onto the porch I created a small opening that Chancey used for his escape. I’m screaming for him to stop while I’m doing my version of jogging to catch up with him. Off he goes, again heading East following the double-yellow lines again! Now he’s a little black dog and with the light fading, it was hard for me to see him much less for the on-coming drivers. Of course, a woman waving her arms does slow traffic down a bit. The first driver stopped but the truck behind her moved around her and was heading directly toward Chancey and the driver didn’t see him. At this point, I felt something moving quickly pass me. It was Mary madly running. She hadn't had any knee surgeries like I've had so she’s still able to sprint. She had heard my screams from the house and knew it had to do with one of the dogs. She finally caught up with Chancey before the truck ran over him!

Episode #5 –Mary and a friend had just gone shopping for our Christmas dinner and were unloading the groceries with Chancey jumping up and down on the porch. He was so excited that they had come home. Seeing the opportunity to make a run for it, he did.  Mary was yelling at him to stop as he again headed East on the double-yellow lines. This time is was light enough out for traffic to see him. Traffic came to an abrupt halt. Coming from the East was a large truck, the driver made a quick decision and turned his vehicle so it blocked the road. And, a pick-up truck coming from the West stopped traffic from that direction. Yeah, another possible disaster averted!

We’ve come to the conclusion that Chancey thinks he’s “Toto from the Wizard of Oz.” He is a terrier just like Toto was. He does hail from Kansas and he is obviously searching for that elusive yellow-brick road like so many of us are!

From 91 to 115 Framed Items in One House!

I wrote the original posting back in October, 2014. At that time we had 91 pieces of framed art. Well, since then we have added many additional pieces. So here's the latest numbers within the brackets as of July, 2017 which comes to a grand total of 115. This count does not include the plaques, wooden dishes, metal signs and a clock up on the walls. I can't believe we have so many items in a small house of 1100 square feet!

     Kitchen – 10  [13]
     Living Room – 16  [18] 

         Hallway – 16  [20]

         Half-bath – 8   

         Full-bath – 3 

         Study –  7  [9]

         Master Bedroom – 15  [16]

         Guest Bedroom – 7  [19]

         Laundry Room – 9 

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I bet very few of you reading this post know that in a previous life I was the manager and owner of a frame shop. Two things occurred during that time period. I can wax and wane on the dangers of using non-acidic materials for framing your beloved memories. Also, I came away with an enormous amount of framed art. Thank goodness I got a lot of things framed while I was in the business because I couldn’t afford to now.

So this past week I went into a dusty frenzy and started dusting the framed art hanging in our home. And this is what I found out:

·       Kitchen - 10 

·       Living Room - 16 

·       Hallway – 16 

·       Half-bath - 8 

·       Full-bath – 3 

·       Study -  7 

·       Master Bedroom – 15 

·       Guest Bedroom – 7 

·       Laundry Room – 9 

That comes to a grand total of 91 framed pieces of art hanging on the walls of our very small house! And, we still have art waiting to be framed. This count does not include the plaques, wooden dishes, and a clock up on the walls. When we move we are going to be filling a lot of nail holes! Swiss Cheese anyone?

Our collection comes from a multitude of places. In Mary’s family there were two artists. Mary’s mother, Eleanor, sold many of her pieces and luckily we have eight of her beautiful paintings. Mary’s grandfather, George Washington Brown was also an amazing artist. We are blessed to have three of his pieces. One is in oil, one in pencil and one in pen and ink.

Finally, we have twelve framed pieces and five unframed from Tullio Grendanin. He was Mary’s sister Chris’ father-in-law. Though he was known as a water colorist Tullio liked to experiment with different medium. We have several pieces done in oil during his “nude” period. Those fine ladies are hanging in our hallway!  We also have quite a few from his “barn’ period in watercolor and oil. Those are all hanging up in our Living Room. Between 1970 and his retirement from being a machinist in 1988 he had nine one-man shows and won a number of prizes in judged exhibitions. To support his family he made a career as a tool and die maker but he lived to paint.  A quote of his in an interview with the Times Herald Record in 1992, says it all “If I could not paint,” he said, “I would die.”         

Also, along the way both Mary and I have purchased art from various artists in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Colorado. We have very little wall space left. I even have one piece hung behind a door that is rarely seen but not forgotten. I may be hanging more pieces there in the near future if I can’t move certain pieces around to make more wall space.

Needless to say Mary and I love our collection and are very proud to be their owners.

Our Scottish Terrier's Last Few Days

Chancey is our beloved Scottish Terrier that I dog-napped in July 2008 from New London, CT. I’ve written several stories about him over the years. In April of 2014, he was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer. We were told that he had 6 maybe 12 months at the most. Well…39 months later he’s still with us.

He’s on Prednisone plus other drugs that are keeping the cancer at bay. He’s a very happy dog who loves treats, treats and more treats. He is especially fond of people, he’s never met anyone that he doesn’t like. We have had a few scares due to the cancer but none as bad as Sunday morning.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

I woke up at 4:45 a.m. and everything seemed fine. I decided to read a little to go back to sleep. At 5 a.m. Chancey came into the bedroom with blood pouring from his nose. When I walked down the hallway, I found blood everywhere, on the area rugs, the wooden floors, the walls, even in the bathrooms. I tried to clean some of it up but there was just too much. It was absolute chaos, we were at a loss on how to handle the situation. We used many towels to try to stop the bleeding and they rapidly became soaked.

We knew we had to get him up to the Emergency Vets which is about 25 minutes from our house. Until we left the house we had to put him out on the porch and that quickly became covered in blood.

Our other two dogs had been sniffing the blood and didn’t know what to make of it. We put them in the living room, the one area that Chancey hadn’t gone into. I insisted on driving which I rarely do since my driving makes Mary extremely uncomfortable. I wanted her to be the one to hold him and tell him everything was going to be okay.

The staff at the Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital (VESH) in Deerfield, MA were amazing. They did a wonderful job of handling us plus assessing Chancey’s health crisis. The bleeding had stopped on the way up but while in the exam room it started up again. We tried cleaning it up with paper towels but there was just too much. A technician had to use a mop to clean the floor.

The ER Vet gave him a shot to help his blood to coagulate. We were also given an herbal supplement to help stem the bleeding. They also put him on Trazadone to keep him calm so he wouldn’t exacerbate the bleeding. I felt that we should have gotten a script for that as well!

When we got him home he was so exhausted and weak. He rested most of the day. I spent over an hour just scrubbing the blood off the floors. Then we took all the rugs outside to hose them down and amazingly all the blood came out. Looking around the house you couldn’t tell what a disaster it had been earlier in the day.

Our local Vet, Dr. Leanne, was amazing as well. Mary texted her (yes, she gave us her cellphone number back in 2014) with what had happened, what the test results were plus the medication he was given while at VESH. She agreed with the medication he was placed on and asked that we contact her on Monday to let her know how he was doing.

Monday, July 17, 2017

By Monday morning, Chancey was eating and moving around comfortably. The ordeal from the day before was a distant memory at least for him. Dr. Leanne observed that every time we think we may be near the end, Chancey rebounds.

We have had many discussions about Chancey’s “Quality of Life” regarding his cancer. After this bleeding episode, we could tell that he was coming to the end of his life. We agreed that if he stopped eating or had another bleeding episode we would make the decision to have him euthanized. Easy to type that word – but it is so painful to see it on my computer screen.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

This morning things went downhill quickly. Chancey normally is in the kitchen waiting for his food. Instead he was lying in the living room. I took his food over to him and he slowly ate it. I needed to give him his morning medication which gets wrapped up in cream cheese and he would not touch it. I tried his favorite treats and still no success.

I headed out to go do my morning workout. When I came back, I found that he had thrown up the contents of his breakfast all over the kitchen floor. I called our Vet and was told to bring him over immediately. She said we had come to the end. Unfortunately, Mary was out of town. I called her and she could be back by 5 p.m. The appointment to put him down was scheduled for 5:15 p.m.

The story ends here -- I don’t want to go into the bloody details on how devastated we were over his passing or how empty our lives were without him in it.

Mt. Tom B-17 Memorial Ceremony - July 15, 2017

This past Saturday, July 15, 2017, I attended my third memorial service at Mount Tom. The ceremony is dedicated to 25 men who never had the life experiences we all take for granted. They are remembered every year thanks to all the efforts by the Stettner family (Ellen, Al and Scott) which was their mother’s wish. Mrs. Stettner (Dorothy) was the sister to Alfred Warm, one of the men who was killed in the accident.

On the evening of July 9, 1946, a B-17 (Flying Fortress) flying out of Goose Bay, Labrador, and carrying the servicemen who were on their way home after serving in World War II. The plane was preparing to land at Westover Air Force Base. But rain and darkness covered the peak of Mount Tom and, only minutes away from the airfield, the plane crashed into the south side of the mountain, killing all on board. If the plane had only been 30 feet higher they would have survived.

Below are the names on the memorial marker of the individuals that died. Eighteen were in the Coast Guard, one from the Red Cross, one a doctor from the U.S. Public Health Service and the rest were Army Corps.

Archilles, David F.         S2C                      USCG                   MA

Austin, Wayne L.          1LT                       USAAC                CO

Bailey, Arthur                CIV                      ARC                      NE

Benfield, George R.       EM3C                  USCG                   TX

Carson, Howard E.        PFC                      USACC                NY

Coviello, Pasquale P.     LT                        USPHS                  NJ

Davenport, Gregory S.   SIC                      USCG                     RI

Fleming, George E.       ETM3C                USCG                     PA

Gillis, Ernest R.             RM3C                  USCG                    MA

Johnson, Wilfred U.      LT                        USCG                     NJ

Lebrecht, Henry A.        CAPT                  USAAC                  NY

Meriam, Frank G.          LT                        USCG                    MA

Miller, Arthur C.            SIC                      USCG                     RI

Orford, George E.          LTJG                   USCG                     NJ

Roe, Daniel R.               SGT                     USACC                  AZ

Sanchez, Eulogio           PFC                     USAAC                  MI

Scott, Russell S.             BM2C                 USCG                     NJ

Simons, Arnold J.          RM3C                 USCG                      RI

Tansey, Rex A.               PFC                    USAAC                  OR

Turrentine, Samuel A.   FL O                    USAAC                  SC

Valdrini, Herman J. Jr.  FL O                    USAAC                  AZ

Warm, Alfred, L.           RM3C                 USCG                     NY

Warshaw, Stanley P.     SIC                      USCG                     NY

Winnard, Lee                 RM2C                 USCG                     MI

Worth, Hugh J.              YNC                    USCG                    MA

I am always moved to tears when I attend this ceremony. My parents both were in the military during the war but they got to come home while these men didn’t. On a nice day take a hike up to the memorial. The site is kept in impeccable condition by a husband and wife team who donate their time to keep it so.

I want to thank all the young men representing the Civil Air Patrol. Some who were assigned to keep traffic moving to the old ski lodge located at the bottom of the mountain for parking. There were also cadets that did the Presentation of Colors (U.S. and State flags). The Civil Air Patrol also supplied two 11-passenger vans to transport the attendees up/back to the memorial site.

If you would like more details regarding the previous two memorials I attended, click on the years in my blog for 2015 and 2016 and scroll through the postings to read them.

THEY WERE ON THEIR WAY HOME, FOR THEM, WHO DID THEIR VERY BEST, AND NOW IN GOD’S HANDS…AT PEACE” (Norm Cote)