Corydon

Windywillows Corydon Summernight

May 2004-August 30, 2017

We said goodbye to our good friend this week.  Our loving, loyal, joyous companion of 13 years had lost herself to canine dementia and seizures, and the time had come to help her gently over the rainbow bridge.  It's not been an easy summer with our sweet girl, and we knew the time was coming to let her go.  But its pretty much the worst, you know, losing your dog.  Such a creature of pure love.  She has never been anything but gentle and true.  Sometimes overly enthusiastic.  Sometimes pretty problematic when her separation anxiety had to be taken into account.  But always, always more joy than sorrow to have this girl in our lives.  Our house is so very quiet now.

We are working on a photo / memory book of Cory girl, because 13 years is a lot to sum up and it turns out we took a lot of photos of our gorgeous doggo. But for now, in this space, a few memories that come to mind, to help me remember that Cor was not always old and struggling, that she was vibrant and funny and full of life and the great joy of my heart.  (I miss her so much.)

Corydon wasn't the easiest of puppies.  She was slow to housebreak, scared of stairs, and impossible to walk on a leash.  Her caution as a pup is what saved her, though, when her impulsive older brother ran off that cliff in 2004, and she stayed at the top.  

Once she grew up a bit, she ended up being an easy dog to train, and before long we had ourselves a sweet, obedient little friend.  She was our first purebred puppy, and Fran, her breeder, had given us breeding rights, so we decided to try to show her.  That lasted all of one show- not because puppy Cor was unwilling, but because we quickly determined all that grooming and work was not for us.  So Corydon became "Just" a pet.  She did complete the therapy dog training course, even with the supreme challenge of being separated from us for a few minutes as part of the test.  She used her skills by coming in to my classroom in Shaker, laying sweetly with the kids while they learned to love dogs.  In fact, she was always a "dog ambassador," loving on any kids and babies that wanted to pet her. People who were afraid of dogs, were often*not* afraid of Corydon.  I mean, how could they be? 

Cor was an extremely energetic dog, as would be expected from a spaniel.  When we lived in Bedford, and she was our only child, we walked her everywhere, took her hiking in the metroparks, and very often, took her to the park around the block, where she would run agility on the playground equipment and over the skatepark obstacles.  We trained her to jump up over the back of a park bench and leap off it, running down the hill before circling back and tearing over to us, then coming into a front sit, and a "side."   Eager to please, she flew and flew.

 Another favorite activity in her early years-- wrestling with her best friend Roxie.  Rox, slightly smaller than Cor, was by far the dominant dog (not hard to do with Corydon) and the usual order of events was her for to pin Corydon to the ground and drag her around by her ears. Corydon did this with a smile on her face. 

Here are the two of them in their later years, still best buds but a little calmer. 

We took Cor everywhere we could for a few years.  We liked to show her off and have her with us, but it was mostly because it was hard to leave her anywhere.  She did not take to crate training and we didn't force the issue (listening to that puppy cry?  I think not.).  Instead she "couch trained,"  and always did pretty well if we could leave her at her house, on the couch.  As long as no windows were open because she'd go right through the screen to come after us (countless times, because we never learned).  When that happened she'd be waiting patiently on the porch for us when we returned.  She was not a "runner"-- she just needed to know where her people were at all times.  We also could, eventually, leave her in the car to wait for us while we went into stores.  After one of our first attempts, that is, when we went skiing and left her for perhaps a bit too long and she chewed up the back of one of the headrests in my Honda Civic.  Got some seat covers and drove it like that for years. 

Only during her last summer at Farley's could we leave Cor home alone there....

Corydon was in her element at Farley's.  She was able to be off-lead all the time, because she wouldn't leave us and was gentle with other dogs-- so she became one of the "Point dogs," beloved by the whole community.  She was constantly wet for two solid weeks each summer, taking herself for a little dip in the lake whenever she felt like it. Her combined love for the water and for us was a perpetual challenge, as we could not swim out to the raft without her.  She would follow us into the water, swim out to us, look us in the eye like, "Ok, I found you, coming back now??"  and head back for the dock.... then circle back to us to try again.  She ended up getting put on the yellow kayak so that we could float her along with us, as we thought she might swim herself into exhaustion.  She was a great boat dog, taking to kayak, canoe and motorboat rides like a champ.

Cory was such a pretty girl.  I may be biased but we had endless evidentiary proof in the form of the constant compliments she received, everywhere we went.  I remember the first time we took Jack to a festival as an infant, each to display our gorgeous baby-- and virtually no one noticed him because we had Cor along. At least a 15:1 ratio of compliments, on the side of the dog.  Tough to have such a gorgeous sibling.

She was a terrific sibling, though, loving her "puppies" deeply.  When I was pregnant with Jack we spent time conditioning Cor to tolerate tail pulls, foot grabs, and eye pokes.  We needn't have bothered.  She was never anything but gentle with the babies, patient and tolerant of then at all times. And the babies-- perhaps because they grew up with a gentle dog as a role model-- were surprisingly calm and gentle to her.  So many pictures of our babies curled up on this girl, reaching out to her, holding her.  She was so good to them.   Later, she also (grudgingly) accepted four legged and winged siblings. She never even appeared to notice the chickens, but was terrified of the rat and the rabbit.  After about 6 months she and the rabbit did learn to coexist, and she was seen to lick him, three times.  I think they rather liked each other and I am pretty sure he misses her...

As we added to our family, moved, changed jobs, Corydon's life and place in the family shifted.  No longer the spoiled only child, she spent more time at home and less time running free in destinations chosen with only her in mind.  She took it with grace, and accepted her new reality of walks around the block next to a stroller. We still took her to the lake every week when we could-- no matter the weather-- and it was always her happy place.  She would vibrate and whine with excitement in the car on the way there, much to our "joy."  The same traits that made her a perfect dog-- intense love, intense devotion, intense excitement and joie de vivre-- made her hard to live with sometimes...

Cor also loved her new house when we moved to Cleveland Heights.  I remember when we bought the house, but had not yet moved in-- everytime we drove here she would get all worked up in the car, the same way she did when we went to a park.   She would do a "Crazy run" around the perimeter of the yard every time...

Corydon didn't slow down much until she was about eight.  Even with an ACL tear at age 5 (she ran so fast in a circle at the park that she injured herself!) she had boundless energy.  She gave meaning to the term "Springer" spaniel with her leaping and jumping-- up on people, through long grasses, over obstacles.  We also called her a "singer" spaniel because she would "wooo woooo" with joy while playing with her rawhide (oh she loved rawhide!) or when greeting us.  She had a great sense of comic timing and we enjoyed making up songs for her to sing and quotes for her say to us in a funny "Corydon voice."  The kids grew up around this strange behavior and take it for granted that everyone talks for their dog.  (they do, right???)

Cory became known in our neighborhood for her walks off-lead and her friendly demeanor towards other dogs and humans.  Our devoted girl would walk alongside us,  with an occasional meander to sniff.  It got to the point that she hardly knew what to do ON a leash.  Those were some great years, age 8-12, with our dog who knew what we wanted before we asked, a constant snuggle bug on the couch but always up for a walk or adventure.  She would swim and swim after sticks at the beach, though she did develop the bad habit of barking incessantly from the excitement of it all.  She also developed the habit of an extremely enthusiastic greeting when we returned home, jumping and  grabbing at our hands and yelping.  For a few months she started "vocalizing" at us and I swear she learned to say "I love you."  Silver eyebrows and all, she was vibrant up to the last year, and always kept her looks.

Its only been in the last year that the Cor we knew and loved began to slip away from us.  More sleeping.  Less greeting.  She stopped being able to walk off lead because she would wander off and into the street.  She started peeing in the house (a lot).  Through it all she was still our snuggle bug and devoted and full of love, right up to this last summer and her first seizure. It was sad that the last summer of her life was mostly spent sleeping or pacing, with less and less awareness and joy.  But she still had some good times-- two more Farley's trips and a lot of beach time, a few walks around the neighborhood on her "lucid" days where she seemed like her old self.  What an experience, to see a dog through her whole lifespan.  We feel honored to have had this opportunity, with this extraordinary girl.  She never seemed like an animal to me.  Only a member of my family. Love of my life, light of my heart.  What a gift you were to us, Corydon.