FC Fogsvalley Roustabout
October 08, 1998 - July 20, 2012

Rowdy,

Mr Fuzzy, The Fast and the Fuzzy, Dude, Number One and Rasta were just some of the names I called you over the years. Hard to believe it was 10 years ago I first met you at Lighthouse Kennels it seems like yesterday. Torrey didn't feel like he had to put you in your place and you just kept putting your head on my knee looking up at me to take you with us. Which I did and you forever changed our lives. You came to my house and it was like you had never been anywhere else. You immediately showed yourself to be the sous chef or the connoisseur (heavy on the sewer) and helping yourself to whatever you wanted.

I have you to thank and blame going down the slippery slope of Field Trials and Hunt Tests but what a ride it was. You earned your FC with Jason, with 2 wins the second being in St Croix somehow appropriate for a dog I called Rasta. And I got to play a minor part in your title by handling you at the water test and getting harassed by one of the judges of who taught you to swim, which I immediately blamed your former owner. Since you understood the games and I was learning, it was always an adventure handling you in an event. I really took my lumps with you. But I wouldn't trade any of it for the wonderful memories. You helped me take the baby steps in hunt tests by earning a first Master leg and in field trials getting to my first 3rd series (Traz also got in it at the same trial). By the time we were a team, you needed to say goodbye to the games at the young age of 11. I carried you out of the field in your last event to say thank you. As you aged you still loved to "train" by getting a bird a week and making it an adventure. Our football retrieving sessions to get your exercise the last few years will always be special. You made mealtime special with your pacing followed by your pogo routine. And you became a puppy every time it snowed.

Your greatest legacy is your fun loving puppy spirit, which you had right up to the end. It was that spirit that helped to turn Torrey into a decent dog. You also were the crazy uncle to all the pups over the years. You showed so many of them the ropes and used my bed as a WWE mat in the process. Toward the end it showed Dr Rice that day wasn't your last.

The last few years you embraced getting old by having a second puppyhood. Rico loved that about you and played down to your level to help get your blood flowing in the morning. You kept the happy positive attitude no matter what happened.

Till we meet again.

Rowdy's web page

Above photo taken in March, 2012.