Across the Rainbow Bridge

Eulogy for "Trapper" who peacefully died at 15 yrs 2 months on January 25, 2012, 5pm.....to the music of "Yellowstone" by Jett Hitt and Yo-Yo Ma & Friends "Give us Peace".

On the 6th of March 2006, my mother-in-law's
Norwich Terrier dog, Trapper (Castle-Bar Mindtrap 'retired') left her side at 6:45am, and started sitting on my feet, pushing at my leg (herding) and generally making a nuisance of himself (I thought). All day he literally drove
me nuts - but at 8 pm I was in the emergency hospital, couldn't walk by 12 midnight and couldn't breathe by 8 pm the next day. I was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre' syndrome -within 24 hours it meant complete paralysis, breathing
through a tracheotomy, unable to speak or swallow and being fed through a feeding tube.

I spent 3 months in the ICU and 8 weeks in a rehabilitation facility and many months being rehabilitated at home. But when I finally got home, there was Trapper! He became my dog and took over my care. He decided whether I was allowed to go to the bathroom by myself, out on the porch, down the steps, etc. If I was all right in his opinion, he went back to being a dog and was happy to go for his walk and chase the elusive squirrel -but, if he thought I was having trouble with anything, like increased numbness of my feet and hands, or my balance was the slightest off - he was right there like glue stuck to my leg and he was happiest if I just would stay on the couch with him at my feet. We thanked the breeder, Barbara Pierce for allowing Trapper to "retire" to his new home every day of this long recovery.

So I think, yes -some dogs like Trapper bond with their owner and have a facility for being therapy dogs and it isn't really anything you train -you may enhance the ability with training. For instance Trapper was trained to tell me when the telephone rang in the other room, or if there was someone at the front door for me to yell "come in"! He could tell time and knew when my husband would be home and would wait patiently by the front door for 5:30 pm. He knew when
the home health aid was supposed to show up (and never looked for her on the weekends). And he knew the schedule of when I should take medication and would bug me until I did. I always thought that he would probably learn to answer the telephone himself, someday.

And, now he has gone over the Rainbow Bridge to wait for me...old age, dementia, blind, deaf and a torn ACL again, finally caught up with him and we are all grieving today.