Yoshi

Thursday morning I woke up at 5:30 for apparently no reason. Groggily I did my best to fall back asleep. When I woke up just before 7 I started thinking about why I had woken up.

It wasn't the kids, it wasn't something outside, it wasn't the cat, it wasn't Sue. Then it hit my like a ton of bricks.

Thursday was March 29th. That was the two year anniversary of Yoshi passing away. Oddly, it happened right around 5:30 in the morning.

I don't think I will forget that day. I still love you Yoshi. RIP.

Yesterday I took my buddy out for what I though was going to be his last ride ever. Yoshi passed away over a year ago, but I never got around to taking some of his ashes with me on a ride. Perhaps I wasn't ready to do it. I thought about it lots over the past year. Yesterday was the day though.

The day was spectacular. The sun was out, and it was warm, bordering on hot at 10:30. I took my hardtail for the ride since I didn't really want to be wearing my armour on a hot ride. Heart came with me too.

There were three places I wanted to take Yoshi to and leave some of his ashes at. I changed my mind on one of them though. I took a route that Yoshi enjoyed and stopped many times along the way. Heart came with me on the ride for moral support. She didn't really know what I was up to, and I was ok with that. She is turning into a good trail dog, but her differences really remind me of Yoshi.

Yosh used to be constantly running through the bush whenever we stopped. He would like to lead the pack on the trail too, though he never liked to get too far in front of me. I will never forget that there is one section of trail that he did not like. There was something there that scared him, and any time we got close he would act very strange, and sometimes go the opposite direction on the trail. I often wondered if he smelled a cougar or something.

Heart on the other hand sticks close to me, usually in front. When I stop for a break, she sticks with me and hangs out.

The first stop was at the bench at the bottom of the Switchbacks. Any time we rested there Yoshi would look at us with his big tongue hanging out. Inevitably he would head down the bank to the stream and get a drink. I sprinkled some of him at the top of the path and marked it with a rock.

After a nice break Heart and I continued on to Twister. There is a clearing just after the first hill where we would often take a break. Yoshi would run around eating grass, or come visit for some scratches.

After Twister, Heart and I made our way up to Snakes and Ladders. At the top of the trail there is a nice rest area with a clearing over looking the dump, and the valley.

Here I found a rock to leave part of Yoshi under. The last little bit of ashes I had I tossed into the wind. In my mind I could see Yoshi running free. I thought back to his uncanny ability to always get up in the car when we got close to a destination for a walk. I remembered how when he ran wildly his ears, jowls and tongue would flap about. I missed him terribly at that moment. I still do.

After a moment of silence and thought of Yoshi I got back on my bike and headed back to my truck. I made one resolution though, that won't be his last ride with me. I'm going to get a small container and seal some of his ashes in it. Then he can come with me on every ride.

Heart had a good run that day. She was pooped by the time we got to Skull trail and lagged far behind me on the double track back. After a big drink and a cool down, she had a deep snooze for the rest of the day.

View Remembering Yoshi in a larger map

Created by My Tracks on Android.

Total Distance: 6.86 km (4.3 mi)
Total Time: 1:34:39
Moving Time: 50:43
Average Speed: 4.35 km/h (2.7 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 8.12 km/h (5.0 mi/h)
Max Speed: 29.02 km/h (18.0 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 112 m (367 ft)
Max Elevation: 287 m (942 ft)
Elevation Gain: 312 m (1025 ft)
Max Grade: 5 %
Min Grade: -11 %

Heart is such a unique dog. She is sweet and lovely, but has a few funny qualities.

Sometimes she gets super excited when we get home. I mean, SUPER excited. As in crazy barking, running around, doing lags around the outside of the house excited. The kids generally get out of her way, but someday someone is going to get hurt.

The other thing is that in the morning when Heart come upstairs, she comes up ever so quietly, walks into out room and curls up on her bed up there. One of the reasons we locked Yoshi in the kitchen at night was because in the summer he would wake up at 5 am and come racing up the stairs. He was so loud he woke everyone up. Yoshi was a morning dog and never slept in. Heart will stay one her bed sleeping as long as there is no movement in the room.

Another peculiar habit is that she is a garbage can surfing dog. If we forget to close the cupboard, she will dip in there and find something to grab. She doesn't always eat it though. Sue told me a story about this once, and I just experienced it today. The kids were on the couch watching TV. I had just sat down to read some blogs on my computer. Heart would not settle down. She was waling around the dinner table where I was sitting, then would walk around the couches. She did lay down at one point, then promptly got up. It was starting to get a little annoying. Then she walked toward me and she was holding her jaw funny.

I suddenly remembered Sue telling me a similar story and how Heart had gone into the garbage can and carried around something in her mouth for awhile. I grabbed her and opened her mouth. Sure enough there was a piece of celery stalk that I had likely dropped on the ground. It's almost like she wants to eat the food/garbage, but knows it is wrong. Instead she skulks around the house with it in her mouth thinking "I am in so much trouble", but unable to put the food down. Silly girl.

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of Yoshi's death. I still think about him a lot, and I still miss him a lot. He was a great dog, and even though we have Heart now (who is another great dog), the hole he left behind is still there. I find it hard to believe that a year has gone by already. I still distinctly remember his last night with us, and the awful trip to the vet's office.

Having Heart around does help since she is so similar to Yoshi, but her differences make me think about him. I kind of like that. I never intended to replace him.

One of my many fond memories of Yoshi are of him sleeping. I loved listening to him sleep at night. His loud, long deep sighs would often bring a smile to my face. His snoring would make me laugh, and his jerky, running movements while asleep would crack me up.

Occasionally he would sleep with his eyes open which was always creeeepy. Specially when his eyeballs would start moving about.

We would often find Yoshi sleeping on his back, legs in the air. At first I thought it was pretty weird, then I came to think of it as quirky. For a while we let him sleep on the futon in the guest room (we had special Yoshi sheets on it). When it was set up as a couch, he would stretch out, then flip his legs up against the back of the futon and go to sleep. He would also sleep on his back on his dog bed. His jowls would lift up and his eyelids would droop.

When he first started doing this he was still intact. That was the only thing about him sleeping that way I didn't like

This sleeping pattern was a trait in him that I loved. It's coming up on a year when Yoshi passed away. I think of him a lot still, but the past couple weeks I have really been thinking about him. I miss him still.