|
|
|
Rocky was my first Flat-Coat. He literally changed my life, preventing from working crazy hours at the (then small) software company that I worked for. He was also my introduction to the world of showing dogs. Originally I had intended to focus on just obedience, but I got sucked into showing because it was "only an extra $10 and I was already at the show site". How little I knew.
Connie Barrett, Rocky's Breeder, was soon out of Flat-Coats, although I did meet her once more when Rocky was two and she congratulated me on a recent win in the show ring. Most of what I learned was from other flat-coat owners and breeders in the Northern California Flat-Coated Retriever Club.
Rocky was eager to learn and I tried all kinds of activities with him. He was a boy, however, and he did humble me at times. It was in Canada during an entertaining activity called a scurry, that he was given the name "Randy Rocky". Instead of racing out to retrieve a bumper like all of the other flat-coats that were there, he made a hard right turn and ran right into a crate that had been occupied by a bitch in season. He then proceeded to grab her crate pad and hump it. It was the height of embarrasment for an otherwise very nice weekend (he had taken Winners Dog two out of the four days of showing there - it was a national specialty weekend).
Rocky died on January 3, 2003, on a dark and stormy night. Cancer snuck up and took him: Hemangiosarcoma. I'm very thankful I got to say goodbye; I miss him very much.