What?

 

I'm going for a ride!

I saw Mommy get out the bag of car stuff. See I mainly live on my boat but sometimes we drive places by car. I like it best when it's my white Subaru but most times Mommy goes off somewhere and comes back with some strange car. I don't know where they come from. Maybe she steals them.

We leave very early in the morning and for the first time I have the whole backseat to myself. Dyna always used to hog most of the backseat. I'd have to look at Mommy real pitiful and she'd make her move over so I could lie down. Boy, I wouldn't complain a bit if she were here to hog the backseat again...

 

So we finally stop and we're at Lucerne Veterinary Hospital. Wow, I love this place! I know most dogs hate the vet, maybe they don't have Chris and Stephanie as their vets. Sure, sometimes they stick me and it hurts a little or examine someplace I'd rather they didn't. But mostly they coo and tell me I'm cute and I almost always get a treat.

I can't believe it, JoDee is here too! I love JoDee because she loves dogs. She has a few puppies with her getting their wellness check. I like puppies. I remember last year about this time Dyna and I came here and JoDee had a whole van full of puppies, I think about a hundred. They got checked out and then JoDee played with us. It was great. This is going to be fun.

There's one puppy that Mommy and Daddy keep fussing over and calling Dee Dee. They're telling her how cute she is. I was pretty darn cute at that age too. In fact, my puppy picture won a 1st place prize in a contest. Can Dee Dee claim that?

 

Dylan, July 2007

What? Why did they put this Dee Dee character in our car? Maybe JoDee is going to drive back to our house and then I'll play with all of the puppies in the back yard. JoDee sometimes comes to my house and often has other dogs with her that I can play with. I remember once she brought my litter-mate Jewels to play with. It was fun but she pushed me around a bit and was kind of bossy. Come to think of it, so was Dyna. Maybe it's a female thing. This will still be fun.

Well, we've been here at the house for quite a while and JoDee still hasn't come to get the puppy. I wonder if she got lost. Maybe we should go find her.

Mommy and Daddy have put up a crate that's just like the one I used when I was just a puppy and they brought me home for good. They don't seem to be worried that JoDee hasn't come...

Wait a minute. Is this puppy staying? There's a bag of puppy food on the counter, some new puppy toys on the floor, hmmm. I wonder if we're going to take her back to the boat with us. I've got lots of new things to show her there. It will be nice to have someone to cuddle with in the backseat and when Mommy and Daddy are gone. I guess she can stay but I'm absolutely not letting her have any of my food!

Introducing the latest aCappella crew member:

Dynasty's Delight

Dee Dee

Kismet, Serendipity, Fate...

Does it matter what we call it?

Towards the end of April I received an email from JoDee with a picture of a minutes-old puppy. I had no idea there was a litter coming. JoDee and I had been talking frequently about Dyna but she had never mentioned it. So I called to find out what's up.

It seems she had bred Keeper, Dyna's great-great-granddaughter, with Sarge, Dyna's great-grandson but thought it didn't "take." I know a lot about dogs but not about the breeding of them and I didn't ask for details. A week or so earlier JoDee thought Keeper was putting on some weight and low and behold she was - puppies. So now there were 3 adorable puppies with a piece of Dyna on both sides.

Three weeks later our precious Dyna crossed over to become queen of that huge dog park with never ending bowls of meat (her favorite) and cool breezes (also her favorite). We were left with a big hole in our heart and down an important crew member.

So one day JoDee said, "I don't want to push you but I want you to know I'll keep the yellow female for you if you want." Those of us who have had the privilege of loving many dogs know one can never replace another. But we also know that the love we have to share grows with each one. I knew I could love another puppy. In the past, Jeff has taken longer.

So I waited a few days until we had finished dinner and were relaxing over a glass of wine and I mentioned my conversation with JoDee. Jeff responded with tears in his eyes, "I discussed it with Dyna her last night. I already have a name."

The picture above is from the "puppy cam" that JoDee setup for us. We can watch from our cell phones and many times a day one of us says, "Time to check on the puppies!"

So we leave early Wednesday morning to drive to Lucerne Veterinary Hospital, home of the two best vets in the entire world, where the puppies will receive their final wellness check. We have a folding crate and puppy food and chew toys being delivered to our house in Maine. A few days there and then back to the boat to continue our new adventure.

Don't tell Dylan. It's a surprise birthday gift. And I think he'll be pretty surprised...

Top Dog

We wish to thank everyone for their many kind emails, comments, and even personal visits to express your sympathy and thoughts about our loss of Dyna. It has been a melancholy time. Many have asked about how Dylan is doing. It has certainly been a loss for him as well.  He was with her when she passed and seemed to understand. But he has lost a companion and mentor and is in some ways alone for the first time.

So we have been settling into new routines for all of us.

We spent nearly a week in DC, taking Dylan on long walks through the city that used to be home for us. The Capital Yacht Club was the perfect location to explore. Dylan visited many of the memorials with large groups of visiting school children happily giving him a pat. If you have a chance to do this trip don't hesitate. The cruise along the Potomac River in beautiful and the Capital Yacht Club is in the middle of it all.

We've enjoyed several nights at anchor, something we've done little of lately. Dylan was spoiled rotten by Linda and Kathy in the Washburns Boat Yard office in Solomons, Maryland while aCappella received some routine maintenance. Of course, they did take some humiliating funny hat pictures which may have scarred Dylan's psyche. Then they threw him a few treats and all was good. His niece Mellow was also in Solomons along with her people, Trudy and Ken. Dylan and Mellow enjoyed daily romps and were even invited to a docktail party one evening.

We spent several days at Annapolis. A place we had visited many times by land but this was the first time by water. We're now hunkered in at South Jersey Marina in Cape May, New Jersey waiting for a front to pass so we can transit the New Jersey shore to New York. It's giving us a chance to explore the charming town of Cape May.

There are more new adventures ahead as we spend the next year visiting all new destinations. At every stop we will think of Dyna who was always up for something new. Dylan will miss her as he looked to her for confidence in new situations.

For the first time ever Dylan is now top dog. At least for now...

Our Queen

Meadowmeres Birchwood Dynasty

 "Dyna"

May 19, 1998 - May 14, 2013

 

It became a nightly ritual performed at bedtime for the last six months. Dyna could no longer descend the steep steps to the stateroom below and there was no way she'd sleep apart from the rest of her pack. So I'd start a couple of steps down and she'd lean her chest onto my left arm while my right arm captured her rear legs. As we reached the bottom, her head would pop up impatiently looking around the corner to the stateroom where Dylan and the all-important nighttime treat were waiting. She often got nervous as she approached the floor to regain control. I'd always say, "paws out, soft landing girl," and she'd relax and come to stand.

Dyna came to us as a gift at a time when we had a very large hole in our heart. We were visiting a new litter of puppies that were Dyna's grandchildren. As we returned to the car and were putting on our seat belts, Karen told me that JoDee had offered to let us bring Dyna into our home. Karen wanted to know what I thought. I unbuckled my seat belt and said, "Let's get her."

We decided that we should think about it. So we drove down the road an hour to Bangor and stopped at a Pizza Hut to discuss it. My mind hadn't changed but now acting more mature we called JoDee to tell her that we did want her and that we'd get her in another week after getting the house ready for a new dog.

Dyna and I had a special relationship. At home in Maine, she'd spend hours in a recliner chair that she claimed as her own in my office. She was not a licker or a kisser which is odd for a Labrador Retriever. But through the years, she managed to sneak about 30 light licks on my face. They were special and rare. Affection, like everything else with Dyna, always came on her terms. She was the queen and she always acted like the grand matriarch she had become. But in a quiet moment, she'd push her head against my chest, spin around, and lay on my lap, motionless, for hours.

She was an incredibly strong and determined dog. I stayed with her through all her surgeries. They let me extubate her at a major surgery where I monitored her for 8 hours afterwards. No matter what was thrown at her, she took it and owned it. She never complained and I never heard a cry from her in the 6 years she lived with us.

She had the biggest smile I've ever seen on a dog. For whatever reason, her mouth was formed in a way that made it look like she was smiling. While I slept with her on the floor her last night, I looked over at one point. Her breathing was labored and she was terribly weak. But there was that distinctive smile on her face. Even in this dire situation.

There was no denying that she had been failing. But she was determined and we let her fight. Finally, she let us know that she couldn't fight any longer. So as we docked in downtown Washington, DC, I arranged for a veterinarian to come to our boat to end her pain. There is no truer act of love. I know because it hurt so much to do it.

Looking back, I've learned a great deal from her. Be tough, be honest with your affection, and always smile. I miss her terribly and will never forget her warmth.

Paws out, soft landing girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SmartPlug - The Real Installation Story

At this year's Miami Boat Show, Karen stayed on the boat and I drove down for meetings. At the show I had a couple of hours to look for new things for our own boat. I came across SmartPlug, winner of the electrical innovation award at the show. I talked to the company engineers and was totally hooked.

So I got the full receptacle and cable replacement kit and intended on doing a blog entry about how everything on a boat takes longer to install than you think it should. I knew our canine crew would be a big part of the installation since it was taking place in the cockpit, their standard afternoon nap place.

Here's how it went.

Step 1 - Turn off the boat power and unplug the cable. Safety first.

Step 2 - Find the package that got delivered and get a few tools together.

 

Step 3 - Take the parts out and look over the instructions. And let me say, the instructions are fantastic and give absolutely everything you need with clarity.

Step 4 - Remove the 4 screws holding in the power receptacle.

Step 5 - Dylan needs to inspect. It's important to point out that now would have been the wrong time to realize that you should have unplugged the power cable from the pedestal on the dock.

Step 6 - Push Dylan out of the way since he decided he had to be right in front of all the action.

Step 7 - Unscrew the wire screws and the plug falls out. I also cleaned up the old gasket and removed some sealant original to the boat that should have never been installed with the gasket. And I sanded the copper ends a little to remove any corrosion - there was some.

Step 8 - Put the gasket over the plug, push the wires into the color coded receptacles, and tighten with the included Allen wrench. It's a really beefy connection that is much more rugged than the original.

Step 9 - Make sure to not bother Dyna's afternoon nap. She's deaf so she still didn't realize I had been there for 10 minutes already.

Step 10 - Push the wires back and use the original 4 screws in the exact same holes to finish the receptacle installation. It's so nice that everything lines up perfectly.

Step 11 - Feel how it works and make sure there's no wiggle. It all feels perfect and strong.

Step 12 - Saw off the end of the cable to replace the plug with one that matches the new SmartPlug. I made sure to leave a couple of inches on the end so I could splice it if I needed to use the plug again. Most likely, it's already been misplaced and is lost.

 

Step 13 - My trusty wife is called to help with the last stage of cutting so as not to drop the end and wake up Dyna.

Step 14 - No luck. Dyna sensed all the commotion and now decided that she needed to lay on top of the cable being worked on and the instructions.

Step 15 - The instructions tell you exactly how much inner insulation to remove. There's also this white cotton-like material that gets cut away between the wires.

Step 16 - Prepare the plug case and put the included cone over the wires to assist in pushing the wires into the cover.

 

 

Step 17 - The instructions say to use liquid soap because it's a tight waterproof fit. This took about 5 minutes to push on because it was stiff but easy enough.

Step 18 - With all the insulation cut to instruction specifications, it all just fits together perfectly. There's a very strong strain relief part of the assembly that actually holds the cable. The wires then slip in and are tightened with the Allen wrench.

Step 19 - Slide the cover back onto the plug and screw in 4 included screws to lock it all in place.

Step 20 - Convince Karen that she can insert the cable now on her own. The plug only goes on one way and gives a positive lock with the 2 side silver latches. The receptacle cover has two more locking points and folding it over grabs and locks the plug even more securely.

 

Step 21 - Admire the results.

Cost of the SmartPlug kit:  $215
Extra expenses for installation:  $0

A planned 2 hour boat project that took only 1 hour:  Priceless