2-16-23, 8:00 AM, home – The phone rang. Lupe’s Aunt Andrea! SPHP picked up. Right away, SPHP knew something terrible had happened. Andrea was trying hard not to cry.
The news was every bit as awful as unexpected.
Only 3 days ago, Uncle Joe, Aunt Andrea, and Cousin Laddie had left Hotel Lupe to return home to Colorado after a fun weekend in the Black Hills. Lupe and SPHP had enjoyed a couple of prairie adventures along Centennial Trail No. 89 between Fort Meade and Bear Butte Lake with Joe and Laddie during their brief stay.
And now, on this bright, sunny morning in mid-February, Cousin Laddie was no more.
The trip back home to Colorado and life as usual had been uneventful. Everyone was fine. However, in the middle of the night last night, Joe and Andrea woke to the odd sound of scratching on the carpet. Laddie normally slept on a fancy memory foam dog bed they’d bought for him. Laddie loved his special comfy bed, but when Joe and Andrea got up to investigate, he wasn’t on it.
Instead, Laddie was on the carpet in the midst of a horrible seizure. Joe and Andrea rushed him to the emergency vet right away, but other than a shot that put an end to the convulsions, there was nothing to be done. The brain damage was too severe.
I’ll never see Cousin Laddie again, SPHP? How can that be? I just met him less than a year and a half ago. He’s still my practically brand new cousin!
Laddie was new to us, Loop, but he wasn’t young. When Uncle Joe and Aunt Andrea adopted him in September, 2021 no one really knew how old he was. Even the vet had a hard time saying, because nearly all his teeth had been pulled at the animal shelter since they were rotten.
Oh, that’s right! You used to call him Cousin Snaggle Fang, SPHP, because he only had that one upper left canine. All his other front teeth were gone.
That’s right, Looper! Anyway, the vet thought Cousin Laddie was at least 10 years old, but couldn’t say much more than that with any certainty.
Why did Laddie have a seizure, SPHP? I always thought that he was fine. Laddie didn’t act old!
I know it, Loop! Laddie wasn’t weak or decrepit. That’s part of why this awful news comes as such a shock, but Laddie had a hard life until he found a loving home with Aunt Andrea and Uncle Joe. Exactly what all happened to him, no one knows any more. What is known is that Laddie survived testicular cancer, was nearly killed by other dogs owned by his former foster family shortly before Joe and Andrea got him, and was kind of afraid of men.
Laddie wasn’t afraid of Uncle Joe, SPHP! When we went on adventures, Laddie almost always wanted to stay close to Uncle Joe.
Oh, Laddie was a little skittish at first, even with Uncle Joe, but he got over it! Laddie quickly learned he could trust Uncle Joe completely.
Well, this news is just the worst, SPHP! Now I don’t have any cousins left at all. Remember when Cousin Dusty died last fall how you put some of our memories of being together on my blog to have something beautiful to remember her by? Would you mind doing that for Cousin Laddie, too?
Absolutely, Loopster! Even though our glory days with Cousin Laddie were short compared to the many years we knew Cousin Dusty, I’ll see what I can do.
Cousin Laddie
Cousin Laddie’s early life is a mystery lost in time, but it’s known that he’d suffered through some very hard experiences shortly before his luck changed late in life when Aunt Andrea and Uncle Joe adopted him in September, 2021.
Cousin Laddie’s name used to be Danny Boy, but Aunt Andrea liked the name Laddie, which was the name of a dog that lived long ago across the alley from her Grandmother’s house in North Dakota back when Andrea was a young girl. Even though Danny Boy was a Sheltie with beautiful luxuriant fur, and looked nothing like the original Laddie of Andrea’s youth, he began the last, and happiest, chapter of his life as the new Laddie. Uncle Joe, on the other paw, would have named him Banjo.
At the time Laddie joined the family, Lupe’s Cousin Dusty was still alive, so Laddie got to be friends with Dusty while living in the same house in Arvada, Colorado that backed up on the 100 acre field where they often took walks together along Ralston Creek.
Lupe met her new Cousin Laddie in late October, 2021. Laddie’s very first adventure with Lupe was Black Hills Expedition No. 281, going N on Centennial Trail No. 89 from Alkali Creek to a ridge S of Fort Meade. This part of the trail along the E edge of the Black Hills near Sturgis was one of Uncle Joe and Dusty’s favorite hikes. Uncle Joe always called it the Ponderosa Hike.
Laddie had a fabulous time! He climbed Peak 4027, his first Black Hills peak, saw Bear Butte (4,422 ft.), and got treated to part of his very first chocolate coconut bar shared with Loopster and Dusty. It was also on Expedition No. 281 that SPHP first discovered Laddie’s talent for almost always managing to face away from the camera, a skill he never lost, at least not when SPHP was around.
On Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 282 the very next day, Laddie made it to Peak 5261 after starting out from Centennial Trail No. 89’s Elk Creek trailhead. The Ponderosa Hike had been warm and sunny, with a high in the mid 70’s ºF, but this was a very different experience. Suddenly it felt like late fall, or even early winter. Arriving at the summit in a cold fog, Laddie didn’t get to see any of the views Lupe had hoped to show him. There was even some snow around!
Laddie’s second visit to Hotel Lupe didn’t take place for nearly another 6 months. Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 301 started out with a wintry jaunt around scenic Sylvan Lake.
As the day warmed up a bit, the trip around Sylvan Lake was extended with a short loop along part of Little Devils Tower Trail No. 4.
Expedition No. 301 ended with a buffalo hunt in Custer State Park! No one knew if this was the first time Laddie had ever seen a buffalo, or not, but he saw a whole herd of them today! When Lupe began barking at them from the RAV4, Laddie got into the spirit of it, too.
Two days later, Laddie enjoyed an easy road hike in the central Black Hills to Gimlet Pond on Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 302. Cousin Dusty would be 16 in June, and this turned out to be the last time all 3 cousins would be together.
Time marches on. By the time Laddie made his 3rd visit to the Black Hills in late September, 2022, Cousin Dusty had died suddenly only a week before. Just Lupe and Laddie, now.
During this stay at Hotel Lupe, chef SPHP learned how much Laddie liked sloppy joes, and especially SPHP’s “Sheltie delight” spaghetti. Spoiling Laddie was fun, and Lupe had no objections, since she reaped the same benefits. Every evening, dark, beady, little Sheltie eyes stared up at SPHP inquiring when the next delicacy would be served.
Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 305 lumped several hikes together. Laddie received some Black Hills adventure training, starting out with rock climbing experience gained at Boulder Hill (5,331 ft.).
After Boulder Hill, Laddie explored a segment of Flume Trail No. 50. The next day, he visited Legion Lake, and returned to Centennial Trail No. 89, venturing S from the Badger Hole trailhead. This was followed by a trip to Mount Coolidge (6,023 ft.), technically Laddie’s 4th Black Hills summit, but he didn’t even get out of the RAV4 due to high winds.
It still counts, SPHP! Laddie was there, and even if you say he should have gotten out of the RAV4, I did get out as his personal representative!
Good to see you sticking up for your cousin, Loop.
This third visit to the Black Hills included free water crossing training along Iron Creek Trail No. 15 going upstream from Lakota Lake. Laddie forded Iron Creek several times before easily mastering plank bridge technology, allowing him to stay dry thereafter.
A quick stop at Iron Mountain (5,446 ft.), another drive-up, counted as the 5th Black Hills summit Laddie visited.
And, of course, Lupe and SPHP had been thrilled to welcome Laddie, Joe, and Andrea to Hotel Lupe on February 10, 2023 for their most recent long weekend stay.
Sadly, this 4th visit proved to be Cousin Laddie’s final trip to the Black Hills. Perhaps it was fitting that his last adventures here with Lupe were on Centennial Trail No. 89, where he got to spend both Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 312 and Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 313 exploring the entire segment N of the Ponderosa Hike between Fort Meade and Bear Butte Lake.
Although she’d been there before back in the days when Cousin Dusty was alive, Lupe never got to visit Laddie at his home in Arvada, Colorado where he spent most of his happy days. In Colorado, Laddie was loved and cared for by all the members of his new extended family.
Our time is limited. The precious days with Cousin Laddie were too few. Lupe will always remember exploring Centennial Trail No. 89 with him, and wish that SPHP could once again be whomping up another batch of “Sheltie delight” spaghetti, because gentle soul Laddie is on his way to the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.
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I am sorry for everyone’s loss. I love that his final years knew love, safety and adventure.
Thanks Onies for your kind comments. We miss Laddie deeply, but were blessed to share many great days of hiking with him in the Black Hills and Colorado.
Joe
He was a sweet little dog who lived a hard life, no doubt, but one that ended well with us. We miss him but I am so thankful he got the chance to be a beloved pet in a happy home.
We were so sad to learn of Laddie’s passing, but so enjoyed your tribute to him. Laddie was fortunate to have spent the last year and a half of his life with a family who loved him wholeheartedly.