- The Road Crew -
Born just one month after our beloved Arrow died, we named this litter in his honor, dubbing them with a form of his nickname, Roadie.
Caroling's Taking the Hi Road (Rhoda)
Caroling's Road to Love* (Angel)
Caroling's Road Warrior (Van)
(CH Katley's Land Cruiser X Santera Lillehammer, CD)
DOB - January 11, 1999
*We later learned that Arrow's sister, Lovey, died quite suddenly within two weeks of Arrow. Angel's registered name is in memory of Lovey.
Van was the pup that wasn't suppose to survive.
Born with one ear and virtually no soft palate (not cleft),
he began to fade on his second day because he wasn't
able to nurse efficiently. A bottle was no problem for him, however, and he immediately displayed his tenacious hold on life by draining every bottle dry at feeding time, pummeling his pillow with determination as he nursed.
The explorations of puppyhood and his compromised palate caused many foreign objects to lodge in his nasal cavity resulting in frequent trips to the vet to get his nose washed out. Strings,
pieces of toys, pebbles, sticks, you name
it, came out of Van's snozz. When he was
about seven months old he had recon-
struction surgery to elongate his soft
palate. The first attempt failed and he
had a second surgery a few months later
which healed beautifully and gave him an
almost perfect palate. He still had some
problems with nasal congestion and began almost every morning with bouts of sneezing to dislodge the night's accumulation of goop. His mouth was askew and his bite wry; he preferred to drink lying down or from the hose.
Van was a beautiful, very typey Berner. Happy-go-lucky, he loved to race around the yards. When he barked it was with such exurberance he would throw his head back and rare back on his haunches with each woof. Pretty much deaf, he would sleep so soundly we'd have to tap his paws to awaken him. He never minded these rather rude awakenings and bounced up with tail wagging as if to say, what's up, let's go. He loved his two sisters and spent his
entire life in their company. He never got to go anywhere or do anything special, but he was loved as much as any champion, and our lives are diminished greatly by his absence. Vanny was euthanized at six years, six months to release him from the grip of histiocytic sarcoma and matatastic bronchial sarcoma.
