20/12/24 17:40
I could write a book about Hector. He was a complex dog who wove himself into every interstice of our lives. His fabric is stitched into ours. It is hard to know where to start so let me begin in 2014 — the year he was born.
I was transitioning from triathlon to running in the forest and training for ultras. And Lynne really needed someone to walk with. Capes was too old and infirm. In the late fall of 2014, we just got this crazy idea that we should get another dog who could run with me and hike with Lynne. We didn't know exactly what breed we wanted, but we knew we wanted a running dog. We looked up information about German shorthaired pointers and then landed on German Wirehaired Pointers. We loved their photos and descriptions. Everyone told us that they were difficult dogs, but we completely ignored that important information. Maren, our potential dog trainer, actually zoomed over to our house in her dog van, full of dogs when Lynne texted her that we were planning on getting a German Wirehaired Pointer. She ran into the house and said that this breed was sharp. It turned out that she had had two of them and knew them well. Lynne had no idea what "sharp" meant and nor did I. It was a type of warning — which we steadfastly ignored. That was because we had already found the Three Devils website in Idaho. And seen the pictures of Male # 4. His needy little face stared out at us from the Interwebs. That that was him, our boy, and we were coming to get him.
We set out in our RAV4, which fortunately had snow tires, on January 4. I had hurriedly booked a hotel room in Boise, Idaho and we planned to drive him back the next day. Which all came to pass. That trip was an adventure, kind of like living with Hector. First of all, the weather was horrible and we struggled to get over the mountain passes in Washington state. Then, Lynne left her wallet at a Shell station somewhere in Northern Washington. But after about 12 or 13 hours of driving, we arrived in Boise in a snowstorm. We were scheduled to go and look at him and make sure that he was the right pup for us that evening, but the snow was coming down too hard. So we picked up some food at Whole Foods and retired to our hotel room with a plan to drive to the kennel in the morning. At Three Devils Kennel, we met Jeff the breeder. We had talked to him on the phone several times as he interviewed us about our suitability for adopting a GWP. There he was, our boy, barely able to stand on his four pegs at nine weeks old. We loved him almost instantly, as if the fairy dust was sprinkled on the three of us. We met his mother Qrush. She knew he was about to be taken from her and she snuggled him and rubbed against him anticipating the loss. But he was excited for the adventure and was scooting around the kennel.
Rest stop on the long drive from Idaho
We set off with Hector on my lap in the car. On the journey back, the weather was so bad that double trailer semis were lying on their sides in ditches, but we just motored on. He was terrified and kept throwing up treats we gave him, an indication of his anxiety. But he was brave. En route, Lynne asked him if his name was Carlos but he didn't look up. Then she spoke his name, Hector, and he looked right at her. At the Canadian border, I took him out on the tiny piece of grass by the Customs Declaration Office while Lynne paid $300 tax on him. He had a poo on the grass which was a relief for both of us. Then we drove the final 2 hours to Squamish, in a fresh snowstorm. We came into the house with him and he immediately pounced on Peka - which was a portent of 2 hard years for her. Capes was similarly not delighted.
That first year was full of surprises. He was fresh on the planet and finding his groove. There was vigorous, not always successful training sessions, so many hugs, and fantastic adventures.
Hector was surprised to find himself in Canada. But he made it work.
Mr. H was afraid of water but Lynne started tapping the water to start and then waded in. He copied her every move. And even in his last days, he would test the water by tapping it. He started to find his place - which was always the forest.
In the forest on a hike with Lynne
Training with Maren
But the first year also revealed some sharpness that Maren predicated. We made the mistake of sending him on group walks on days when we both had to be at SFU. In retrospect, we should have seen that he was being bullied by older male dogs. He didn't want to get in the van full of dogs and once we saw the dog walker dry him off very roughly. It only took months for him to start to snap at male dogs and even submissive females when he was uneasy. We started to be apprehensive about taking him on busy trails with the cacophony of undisciplined Squamish dogs. Plus his prey drive was high and sometimes he chased Peka and was rough with Capes. He was injured so frequently that first year that we become frequent fliers at the vet. Almost all of his injuries were from other dogs attacking him. We started to feel very protective of him. We could see that he acted confrontational based on his wariness and fear of other dogs.
Capes and Peka were shocked by his rude arrival.
Hector was becoming his self and there were so many admirable qualities. He was brave, Hector the Protector. He was also unbearably tender at times. His ability to bestow affection was legendary.
They slept together on the floor.
As he got older, he started going on longer runs with me. He was all joy.
We hiked up under the Squamish Gondola a lot.
But tragedy struck. Just after he turned one, he ate three rocks and almost died. The story is recounted here.
Hector spent six years in Squamish and they were mostly good years. We took him on loads of trips because the thing was that he didn't like to be away from us. Sure, Capes would have always preferred to be with us. But it was different with Hector. He couldn't bear to be apart. When we left Squamish (whole story here), a neighbour told us that, at first, they worried we were abusing Hector because he cried so hard and loudly whenever we left him alone in the house. Lynne told me a few days after he died that he taught us to be a pack.
So who was Hector? Here are ten things about Hector.
1. Dr. LOVE. Hector was full of love. Literally this favourite thing to do was cuddle. He was very equitable in his love distribution. If he had been loving one of us for while, he then diligently trotted over to hug the other Mom.
In Lynne's arms.
Any opportunity.
You are my boy.
2. Hector was an athlete. Par excellence. How can I describe his strength and stamina? He was an Olympian in the purest sense of the word.
His running speed was supernatural.
He loved to swim.
He was with me on epic training runs in the subalpine around Whistler.
Cooling off after an adventure. We strategized to make sure he could get into water.
3. Goofball. From his first months, we noticed what a goofball he was. He loved to ham it up and make us laugh.
Mr. Goofy
4. The gourmand. Like most dogs, Hector loved to eat. But not just scraps and dog food. He loved taste. Curry, chilis, ice cream, blueberries… he loved food with unique tastes.
5. Curious. Hector was always busting to see what was just out of reach.
I had a feeling that there was a ball.
6. Thoughtful and intelligent.
Hector was a shrewd analyst.
He weighed the evidence before making decisions.
7. He knew how to let go. Hector would not have called himself a cat lover. He adapted to Peka but when we rescued Charlie, he really did want to kill that cat. But he let go … after about six weeks.
Hector and Charlie were bros.
Plus he adapted to his halloween costume.
Letting it all hang out after a hard day.
Here is how to let go.
8. Ladies man. There were some men that Hector adored, like Max. But he really preferred women. We joked that he was the ladies man. Girl dogs could do anything with him but he found male dogs distasteful. He especially loved Sherry our dog sitter and good friend.
With Max, he could let it all out.
He loved the ladies.
9. Birds. Birds Birds. Hector could kill a bird on the ground or flying low in the air This happened more than once. For one thing, he was a bird dog but he was also lightning quick. Hector additionally had a real affinity for deer carcasses. We often wrestled deer bones away from him (there are a lot of carcasses in rural areas). The best story is Lynne's. She took him fishing on the upper Squamish river in a remote area. She had barely turned around and there he was mid-river swimming toward a small island. He got to the island, picked up an intact deer thorax with all the ribs, and swam back to her with the carcass in his mouth. He worked for that prize.
Another time, he approached a young eagle on the sand along the Squamish river. Weirdly the bird did nothing. Ha, thought Hector… I have you and continued his cartoon stalk towards it. Hector was within a few feet and the eagle spread its gigantic wings. That was all it took for Mr. H. to slowly cartoon walk backwards from that prey. More recently, I was running a trail marathon near Kelowna. I was off in the mountains for 7 hours and Lynne was in charge of Hector. But we had no idea that the countryside was riddled with flightless birds. She literally had to hold him back with two arms. He was shaking with anticipation. Next time, we left him at home.
10. Trusting and trustworthy.
He trusted us to do extraordinary things, like kayaking.
He was trustworthy as well. Lynne called him Hector the Protector.
One more thing. Tofino was his favourite place in the world. He made 7 or 8 trips to Tofino where he could run for hours on the beach. Usually he got 2-3 beach walks or runs a day in Tofino, beating the home average.
Lynne and Hector on the beach.
We lived in our pack of three with Hector for ten years. We didn't know he was sick until days before he died. He was so brave that he kept his pain from us. And we ignored signs in the last two months. He started lifting his left paw in the air. We both thought he had injured his wrist or elbow. Finally he started having trouble breathing. We rushed him to the vet who x-rayed him. She told us that he had an aggressive bone cancer on his left 5th rib and was ready to euthanize him that day. We looked at each other and said a firm no. I phoned his previous vets frantically for a second opinion on the x-rays. Sadly it was as our local vet described. The cancer was enormous and pushed his lung up and forward, leading to fluid in his lungs. Lynne took him for a long walk the day he died. With a diagnosis, we finally felt we could administer pain killers liberally. We spent his last evening on the bed with him holding him and telling him how much his Moms loved him. Just before midnight, he struggled to breathe and we rushed him to the vet where he died.
His second last night.
The next day, we laid him in our media room and took turns lying beside him, holding our boy. We phoned T&R Contracting and they came and buried him in the later afternoon. Hunter and Kyle were so gentle and kind.
Hector, you were everything a dog could be.
We will love you for a thousand years.
I was transitioning from triathlon to running in the forest and training for ultras. And Lynne really needed someone to walk with. Capes was too old and infirm. In the late fall of 2014, we just got this crazy idea that we should get another dog who could run with me and hike with Lynne. We didn't know exactly what breed we wanted, but we knew we wanted a running dog. We looked up information about German shorthaired pointers and then landed on German Wirehaired Pointers. We loved their photos and descriptions. Everyone told us that they were difficult dogs, but we completely ignored that important information. Maren, our potential dog trainer, actually zoomed over to our house in her dog van, full of dogs when Lynne texted her that we were planning on getting a German Wirehaired Pointer. She ran into the house and said that this breed was sharp. It turned out that she had had two of them and knew them well. Lynne had no idea what "sharp" meant and nor did I. It was a type of warning — which we steadfastly ignored. That was because we had already found the Three Devils website in Idaho. And seen the pictures of Male # 4. His needy little face stared out at us from the Interwebs. That that was him, our boy, and we were coming to get him.
We set out in our RAV4, which fortunately had snow tires, on January 4. I had hurriedly booked a hotel room in Boise, Idaho and we planned to drive him back the next day. Which all came to pass. That trip was an adventure, kind of like living with Hector. First of all, the weather was horrible and we struggled to get over the mountain passes in Washington state. Then, Lynne left her wallet at a Shell station somewhere in Northern Washington. But after about 12 or 13 hours of driving, we arrived in Boise in a snowstorm. We were scheduled to go and look at him and make sure that he was the right pup for us that evening, but the snow was coming down too hard. So we picked up some food at Whole Foods and retired to our hotel room with a plan to drive to the kennel in the morning. At Three Devils Kennel, we met Jeff the breeder. We had talked to him on the phone several times as he interviewed us about our suitability for adopting a GWP. There he was, our boy, barely able to stand on his four pegs at nine weeks old. We loved him almost instantly, as if the fairy dust was sprinkled on the three of us. We met his mother Qrush. She knew he was about to be taken from her and she snuggled him and rubbed against him anticipating the loss. But he was excited for the adventure and was scooting around the kennel.
Rest stop on the long drive from Idaho
We set off with Hector on my lap in the car. On the journey back, the weather was so bad that double trailer semis were lying on their sides in ditches, but we just motored on. He was terrified and kept throwing up treats we gave him, an indication of his anxiety. But he was brave. En route, Lynne asked him if his name was Carlos but he didn't look up. Then she spoke his name, Hector, and he looked right at her. At the Canadian border, I took him out on the tiny piece of grass by the Customs Declaration Office while Lynne paid $300 tax on him. He had a poo on the grass which was a relief for both of us. Then we drove the final 2 hours to Squamish, in a fresh snowstorm. We came into the house with him and he immediately pounced on Peka - which was a portent of 2 hard years for her. Capes was similarly not delighted.
That first year was full of surprises. He was fresh on the planet and finding his groove. There was vigorous, not always successful training sessions, so many hugs, and fantastic adventures.
Hector was surprised to find himself in Canada. But he made it work.
Mr. H was afraid of water but Lynne started tapping the water to start and then waded in. He copied her every move. And even in his last days, he would test the water by tapping it. He started to find his place - which was always the forest.
In the forest on a hike with Lynne
Training with Maren
But the first year also revealed some sharpness that Maren predicated. We made the mistake of sending him on group walks on days when we both had to be at SFU. In retrospect, we should have seen that he was being bullied by older male dogs. He didn't want to get in the van full of dogs and once we saw the dog walker dry him off very roughly. It only took months for him to start to snap at male dogs and even submissive females when he was uneasy. We started to be apprehensive about taking him on busy trails with the cacophony of undisciplined Squamish dogs. Plus his prey drive was high and sometimes he chased Peka and was rough with Capes. He was injured so frequently that first year that we become frequent fliers at the vet. Almost all of his injuries were from other dogs attacking him. We started to feel very protective of him. We could see that he acted confrontational based on his wariness and fear of other dogs.
Capes and Peka were shocked by his rude arrival.
Hector was becoming his self and there were so many admirable qualities. He was brave, Hector the Protector. He was also unbearably tender at times. His ability to bestow affection was legendary.
They slept together on the floor.
As he got older, he started going on longer runs with me. He was all joy.
We hiked up under the Squamish Gondola a lot.
But tragedy struck. Just after he turned one, he ate three rocks and almost died. The story is recounted here.
Hector spent six years in Squamish and they were mostly good years. We took him on loads of trips because the thing was that he didn't like to be away from us. Sure, Capes would have always preferred to be with us. But it was different with Hector. He couldn't bear to be apart. When we left Squamish (whole story here), a neighbour told us that, at first, they worried we were abusing Hector because he cried so hard and loudly whenever we left him alone in the house. Lynne told me a few days after he died that he taught us to be a pack.
So who was Hector? Here are ten things about Hector.
1. Dr. LOVE. Hector was full of love. Literally this favourite thing to do was cuddle. He was very equitable in his love distribution. If he had been loving one of us for while, he then diligently trotted over to hug the other Mom.
In Lynne's arms.
Any opportunity.
You are my boy.
2. Hector was an athlete. Par excellence. How can I describe his strength and stamina? He was an Olympian in the purest sense of the word.
His running speed was supernatural.
He loved to swim.
He was with me on epic training runs in the subalpine around Whistler.
Cooling off after an adventure. We strategized to make sure he could get into water.
3. Goofball. From his first months, we noticed what a goofball he was. He loved to ham it up and make us laugh.
Mr. Goofy
4. The gourmand. Like most dogs, Hector loved to eat. But not just scraps and dog food. He loved taste. Curry, chilis, ice cream, blueberries… he loved food with unique tastes.
5. Curious. Hector was always busting to see what was just out of reach.
I had a feeling that there was a ball.
6. Thoughtful and intelligent.
Hector was a shrewd analyst.
He weighed the evidence before making decisions.
7. He knew how to let go. Hector would not have called himself a cat lover. He adapted to Peka but when we rescued Charlie, he really did want to kill that cat. But he let go … after about six weeks.
Hector and Charlie were bros.
Plus he adapted to his halloween costume.
Letting it all hang out after a hard day.
Here is how to let go.
8. Ladies man. There were some men that Hector adored, like Max. But he really preferred women. We joked that he was the ladies man. Girl dogs could do anything with him but he found male dogs distasteful. He especially loved Sherry our dog sitter and good friend.
With Max, he could let it all out.
He loved the ladies.
9. Birds. Birds Birds. Hector could kill a bird on the ground or flying low in the air This happened more than once. For one thing, he was a bird dog but he was also lightning quick. Hector additionally had a real affinity for deer carcasses. We often wrestled deer bones away from him (there are a lot of carcasses in rural areas). The best story is Lynne's. She took him fishing on the upper Squamish river in a remote area. She had barely turned around and there he was mid-river swimming toward a small island. He got to the island, picked up an intact deer thorax with all the ribs, and swam back to her with the carcass in his mouth. He worked for that prize.
Another time, he approached a young eagle on the sand along the Squamish river. Weirdly the bird did nothing. Ha, thought Hector… I have you and continued his cartoon stalk towards it. Hector was within a few feet and the eagle spread its gigantic wings. That was all it took for Mr. H. to slowly cartoon walk backwards from that prey. More recently, I was running a trail marathon near Kelowna. I was off in the mountains for 7 hours and Lynne was in charge of Hector. But we had no idea that the countryside was riddled with flightless birds. She literally had to hold him back with two arms. He was shaking with anticipation. Next time, we left him at home.
10. Trusting and trustworthy.
He trusted us to do extraordinary things, like kayaking.
He was trustworthy as well. Lynne called him Hector the Protector.
One more thing. Tofino was his favourite place in the world. He made 7 or 8 trips to Tofino where he could run for hours on the beach. Usually he got 2-3 beach walks or runs a day in Tofino, beating the home average.
Lynne and Hector on the beach.
We lived in our pack of three with Hector for ten years. We didn't know he was sick until days before he died. He was so brave that he kept his pain from us. And we ignored signs in the last two months. He started lifting his left paw in the air. We both thought he had injured his wrist or elbow. Finally he started having trouble breathing. We rushed him to the vet who x-rayed him. She told us that he had an aggressive bone cancer on his left 5th rib and was ready to euthanize him that day. We looked at each other and said a firm no. I phoned his previous vets frantically for a second opinion on the x-rays. Sadly it was as our local vet described. The cancer was enormous and pushed his lung up and forward, leading to fluid in his lungs. Lynne took him for a long walk the day he died. With a diagnosis, we finally felt we could administer pain killers liberally. We spent his last evening on the bed with him holding him and telling him how much his Moms loved him. Just before midnight, he struggled to breathe and we rushed him to the vet where he died.
His second last night.
The next day, we laid him in our media room and took turns lying beside him, holding our boy. We phoned T&R Contracting and they came and buried him in the later afternoon. Hunter and Kyle were so gentle and kind.
Hector, you were everything a dog could be.
We will love you for a thousand years.
