Nine years ago Pamela and I made a decision to add two new members to our family. At the time we lived separately and had been talking about getting a dog together for some time. On a trip to Hawaii we finally decided not just ONE dog but TWO dogs seemed like a good idea - dogs cleave to one owner and we both wanted a dog. Shortly after we headed for the southside of Indy to see litter of chihuahua-poodle mixes and came home with the love of our lives, Kona and Honu, The Kona Boys as we have come to call them. Their namesake is the dive shop we used when we were in hawaii and the beach surf shop we passed on the way to the beach. Two males out of the same litter. Our vet had warned us about litter-mates that live under the same roof and for the next 5 years they lived apart. Today is their 9th birthday.
Two years into our lives together our pack went from the Kona Boys plus one. Chico is our "oops baby" that joined us when my adult daughter moved in with Pamela and the brothers to finish up her last semester of high school. She brought with her a 8 week old chihuahua rat terrier mix as best we can figure. 6 months later she moved on and Chico was able to join our pack permanently. He became Honu's little buddy and Kona's sparring partner on long walks we took every day.
From day one our travels included the Bo-Bos as they are collectively known. We began with an epic canoe trip in 2007 that included
our best friend Todd's Hungarian vizslas Stout and Porter, male female pups out of the same litter. They all are the same age and grew up together with weekly walks in the farm fields and woods of central Indiana. They are pretty comedic together with Porter and Stout averaging 60-70 lbs and the Kona Boys in at around 10 lbs. There is the occasional collision that yields a yelp from our guys but by in large while the vizslas tear around at top speed they gingerly avoid the kona boys while they do their best to stay out from under the thundering herd. So while our dogs celebrate their 9th birthday, so do Porter and Stout. Those who have met them know what a couple of special characters they are. Happy birthday Vizslas.
Over time our lives have been intertwined until we feel like they are part of us. When we were still working Pamela would drop off Honu and Chico at my place when I was in the office and they all would sleep at my feet until we took a break for some errands and an afternoon walk in the woods. That was the bit of sanity that I would get each day we were together, uninterrupted time away from the computer and cell phone where they would run and play while I would daydream about the time when we could retire and sail full time and see the world. The last few years of my folks lives I spent quite a bit of time taking care of them as my Mom underwent treatment for the cancer that took her too soon in the end. Kona would travel with me to San Diego while Honu and Chico stayed with Pamela and slept with her each night while I was gone. Before I would come home Pamela would wash the bedding and then the we'd all go back to the arrangement that was our norm, dogs on the floor, people in beds. Sometimes Chico would forget I was home and try to sneak in after the lights went off....
They have no bad days. They don't judge. They know your every move and what to expect when you do the same things everyday. They don't interrupt. They are thrilled to see you everytime you come back home. They protect your home when you are away. They depend on you for their food and potty breaks. They are unbelievably adaptable.
When Pamela and I first sailed little frisky they learned how to be around docks and sailboats and we about dogs and boating. We found great outdoor gear for our pups through Ruff Wear, including the life jackets they still wear to this day. One time I had forgotten something at the car and had to run back the 400 yards to get it and decided it was a good idea to leave the dogs by themselves at the boat. When I returned Kona was missing. Frantically I raced around the dock calling his name breathlessly until I saw his sweet face come paddling out between the two boats next to ours safely in his life vest.
Then we moved up to Frisky our Catalina 22 and our waterline increased as well as the freeboard. When the Bo-Bos would get to hot we'd 'dip' them in the lake using the handle on their life jackets, including the time I tried to do it while underway. As I leaned back over the rail to dip panting Chico in Eagle Creek Reservoir, he slipped his life jacket and as I tried to recover him with both hands I realized I was no longer hanging on to the boat and we both went ass over tea kettle into the lake and after surfacing I yelled 'man overboard' to the laughing pamela as she sailed away. Bringing the boat about, Pamela plucked Chico from the water who was WAY ahead of me paddling back.
Then there as the time in Michigan City just after we moved aboard when Honu missed the jump from the dock to the boat on a moonless night. The docks were 6-7' above the water and had emergency ladders to the water only every few docks. I raced into the boat yelling "emergency, Honu fell overboard" and grabbed my headlamp and headed for the nearest ladder calling for Honu. Pamela recalls that what I yelled was incomprehensible but she knew something was bad wrong. In the pitch black with my headlamp on I looked for two little eyes to reflect back to me. Nothing. The ladder was at the bow of the boats and so in order to get the two slips over where the ladder was he would have to swim around the bows or the sterns then to the ladder. Pamela was now calling for Honu and found that he had swum away from the boat off the the stern into the fairway so she called him under the finger pier she was standing on and towards the front of the boats. As he rounded the bow of the boat I was near the bottom of the ladder and I could see the reflective stripes on his life vest, his eyes locked onto the headlamp and my voice. As he arrived at the ladder I could have sworn he had a huge smile on his face. I grabbed him and threw him up on the ladder and he shook off the cold lake michigan water and leapt up into Pamela's waiting arms.
When we moved aboard Big Frisky we began to travel for a living. What was a convenient trip out the front door to go outside potty had to be coordinated with the schedule and the location. We stayed at Marinas as best we could. Most everywhere they were welcomed except just a few places since we've been underway. They are mostly ambassadors of all dogs, as dog lovers come racing to meet the bo-bos, making all kinds of whistling, chirping and cooing noises as they squat down and pet them and tell us all about their dogs at home or in the past. We even had a few locals follow us around a plead for us to sell one of them.
Most folks that meet us and hear of our adventure ask about the dogs and well, you know what everyone thinks of first....where do they go to the bathroom once onboard full time???? Is there some secret that no one has thought of or read about to turn the switch on adult dogs that have been trained to do their business outside to now suddenly do their business inside?
A good question indeed. We read everything from train them to a litter box to put out a piece of astroturf on deck somewhere and "walk" them to it while underway. While we have a lot of that stuff on board and tried every bit of it, I can tell you that the thing that worked was the adaptability of our pack. Our dogs when they were dirt dwellers were not saints and had 'accidents' that seemed more like message many times. They were sneaky and many times repeat offenders at a favorite location. We bought some pee pads and threw them in the mix when we were in Michigan. We tried progressively longer periods of travel with some overnights and they waited us out every time, holding it for up to 39 hours. We began to wonder who left us all those presents when we lived at 22? Turns out as best we can figure it's a privacy thing with a little discretion thrown in.
After we pushed off of VA for the trip we figured it would work its way out. When we discovered that in big weather we pretty much could not walk except for on the low side and the slick floors between our rug runners was un walkable for dogs we laid a plan. We placed training pads at each end of the boat on the rug runner and eventually they began to relieve themselves on these comfort stations when we were not around either on watch, in the galley or off watch asleep. The potty pads are so absorbent that once they used it we just rolled it up and pitched it. We were all relieved when we arrived and the dogs once again had access to terra firma.
On this day of their birth, we give thanks for their presence in our lives and wish all friends and family and their fur babies, rudy, wit, regan, barney (finn), fonzi, darden, porter, stout, larry, maggie, murphy, sambo, chuey and chloe. Good will and many blessings for happy returns.