Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Rosellen Riley Gascon, January 18, 2005-March 19, 2013

We don't really know what happened.  Rosie seemed to be moving slowly a little over a week ago so we brought her to the vet, they did some tests and learned her kidneys were failing.  I don't want to go in to all that because it's too sad.  Suffice it to say we did our best to save her, however she died this morning, peacefully in her home.  I want to think about her life and the 5,000 miles.

She was beautiful and sweet and gentle and kind.  She had these amazing brown eyes.

 She was happy and should have lived longer.

We don't really know when she was born.  We adopted her from the shelter in Orleans, VT on July 2, 2006.  Someone had left her tethered to the fence there so they didn't have any information about her. They guessed she was about a year and a half old so we assigned a birthday of January 18th, 18 being a lucky # for us.  The shelter named her Tillie.  The moment we saw her playing in the yard there, we fell in love.  It's really true.  It was love at first sight.  And we were right.

Tonight I did some math, made some estimations and figured that Rosie ran about 5,000 miles with me.  That is, I ran 5,000 miles with Rosie.  With her out-and-back and forays hither-and-yon, she surely logged many more than 5,000.  She was a wonderful running partner.  I wrote a poem about some of the joys of our trail runs, but we actually ran the road even more than the trails.  Whenever we ran by my dad's house (pretty frequently) her tail would wag and she's linger there, even if he wasn't home.  If he was home and opened the door she'd get so excited.  She really loved Grandpa Dave.

She loved the snow, loved going out in winter.

She loved the kids and they loved her.
 Harper, having been born into a family with the craziest of mutts, our first "child" Sasha, has always particularly bonded with our canine family members.
 These pictures are in Montreal.  Rosie loved the parks in Montreal.  She was a country dog but loved to visit the city.  She loved the scents, chasing squirrels, saying hello to other dogs.  I particularly loved running with her in Parc Mont Royal.  Especially in the winter.


A short video here shows how tolerant she was of our stupid human tricks.


 Camping trip!


Parc Jean Mance (Rosie's park)

Kingdom Trails, our main stomping grounds
 She loved to roll in the snow!

I'm sorry we couldn't save her.  I want her back. Rest peacefully dear Rosie.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Fairytale: Little Moments

Last night I was looking at Neil and I said, "You're handsome."  He responded, "You're pretty."  And Patrick looked up from the game he was playing and sang from a Pogues song: "You're handsome, You're pretty, Queen of New York City, When the band finished playing, They howled out for more." What a cool kid.

Marathoning--A Record of My Times

  • NEW HAMPSHIRE MARATHON, October 3, 2015. 4 hrs. 56 minutes, 8 seconds.
  • MONTREAL "ROCK 'N' ROLL MARATHON, September 22, 2013. 4 hrs. 20 minutes, 41 seconds.
  • VERMONT CITY MARATHON, May 2012. 4 hrs. 20 minutes, 8 seconds.
  • MOUNT DESERT ISLAND MARATHON (Maine), October 2011, 4 hrs. 45 minutes, 14 seconds
  • SUGARLOAF MARATHON (Maine), May 2010. 4 hrs. 18 minutes, 35 seconds
  • MONTREAL MARATHON, September 2008. 4 hrs. 19 minutes, 33 seconds
  • VERMONT CITY MARATHON, May 2008. 4 hrs. 11 minutes, 58 seconds
  • VERMONT CITY MARATHON, May 2007. 4 hrs. 19 minutes, 42 seconds
  • MONTREAL MARATHON, September 2006. 4hrs, 30 minutes, 2 seconds

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed