TravelingMorgansBlog Working our way around the contiguous 48 states in our RV.

12. May 2016

A Tribute to Roscoe the Traveling Dog

Filed under: 2016 — admin @ 07:35

Almost everyone who met us in person during our years of traveling will remember Roscoe, our “Salt and Pepper” Schnauzer who made friends with everyone he met.
If you met Roscoe, you will understand why there are tears in my eye as I write this.

Roscoe came into our life in July of 2002. I was recovering from a closed head trauma injury and had been working from home for months. Phyllis needed something to bring some laughter into her life while she was caring for me. This little Schnauzer puppy called us from the back of the pet shop. He had a black “mask” that made him a natural to play the Lone Ranger in dog form. He went home with us.

Roscoe’s main mission in life was to please Phyllis and I. When we were gone for even 5 minutes, he made it clear he was glad we were back.

When it became apparent I would not really heal well enough to resume my work, Phyllis suggested we sell everything, and I would take early retirement, and we would become full time RVers. “If you stay until you planned to retire, it would kill you and I would be a widow with a pension. I would rather have you.” We worked our way around the country at low paying — and low stress — jobs.

Thus our little Schnauzer became “Roscoe the Traveling Dog”. We had a second dog by that time, a white miniature poodle named Harpo. She was purchased to give Roscoe additional companionship and to keep him active.

Roscoe traveled, with Harpo and Phyllis and myself, all around the 48 contiguous states. He was with us from Florida to Maine to Michigan and California and most of the states in between. He walked the beaches of the Atlantic and Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and the fresh water ocean called Lake Superior. He walked trails in the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains as well as the Black Hills and Sierra Nevada mountains. Any National Parks that allowed dogs had Roscoe’s paws on the paths and his “P-Mail” on the trees. National Forests and National Monuments and Bureau of Land Management areas also had Roscoe visitation.

Roscoe loved playing outdoors and “off leash”. He was always on a “verbal leash” and would stop on command, even if he had started after a rabbit or squirrel.

Once we hit the road, Roscoe assumed the role of protector of the pack. I saw him go for the throat of a dog many times his size when he thought Harpo was threatened. He had a “serious bark” that did not come out often, but when it did, it would freeze your blood. I remember the last time I heard it. He was in our pickup just behind my ear. He saw a bison close to the truck and thought it was threatening (it wasn’t). I pealed my scalp off the roof as the bison walked slowly away.

Roscoe was quite strong for a small dog. Once, before he had been trained to stop on command, a rabbit ran out in front of him while he was on a leash. It took my shoulder years to recover. We joked that if the engine of our truck failed, Roscoe could pull our rig.

Whenever he met people, Roscoe made a friend. He would talk to anyone who tried to ignore him and made friends with people who did not normally like dogs. Until recently, he played with any dogs that would play with him, including puppies.

Roscoe was absolutely fearless, but his mission was one of love.

Roscoe was not cheap. He had two surgeries for urinary stones and would have had a third, but his age made the stress such a surgery inadvisable. We took other measures and they worked.

After over 12 years of a great life, Roscoe began slowly to fail. His hearing was the first to go and he could no longer be allowed off leash, even when the location permitted it. Our veterinarian found a liver/gall bladder issue and corrected it with medication. This gave us another year where Roscoe had a reasonably good quality of life. Then the great muscles in his hind legs began to fail and he had more and more trouble getting into our trailer and up on the bed and couch. Then he had trouble getting down and had to be lifted. He began losing control of his bladder, where before he would have split a gut before soiling or messing his home on wheels. We took gentle care of him, remembering the dog he had been and all of the love he had given us. Occasionally we would see the old Roscoe personality come through and we could see at that moment he was still enjoying life. These moments came less and less often.

On May 9 of 2016, around 10:45 PM, he had a seizure or stroke. He was in great pain and had no control at all. We found an all-night vet clinic about 30 miles away and took him there. In the clinic he had another seizure type episode and we knew it was time. He was about two weeks short of his Fourteenth birthday.

We still have Harpo who is now 13. We will not “replace” Roscoe. At our age, and with the health issues that forced us to stop traveling, a puppy is more than we can handle, and another dog is not really affordable.

We will forever treasure our travels around the USA with Roscoe the Traveling Dog.
He was the best and truest friend I ever had (except for Phyllis).
For those that want pictures you can go to
http://travelingmorgans.com/TM-Main/TM-AboutUs.shtml

I will get a page full of Roscoe pictures as soon as I can manage.
It will be at http://travelingmorgans.com/Roscoe/

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