Our Journey with Willow, Is This Part of the Master Plan?
Most people in our universe of family and friends are familiar with our journey and the results so far. Some readers may not be. My wife Donna and I fell in love with a photo on Facebook of a White Labrador Retriever puppy being sold by a relative. The only problem was the distance between us. They live 3,400 kilometres away. We decided to make a road trip in the dead of a miserable winter, totalling nearly 8,000 kilometres, to pick up the puppy and drive her home.
I’m not naturally religious, but I genuinely believe that I’m a spiritual being. I also believe there is enough evidence to think that there is a higher being (God) and a master plan at play. I’m just not smart enough to define this God or to know what this master plan is. Remember, this is my theory and my postulation. I respect that your opinions may differ, but I’m not interested in a debate.
I’m also creative enough to develop Naguib's answers to the following questions. Why did this happen to me/us?
So why did this happen? Why now? Why me/us? How did this come about? The answers to these and many other questions may only lead to more questions. I didn’t ask Donna, as she would slap me on the back of the head and tell me to get back to clearing the rooms of puppy-proofing hurdles.
We find that we are ready to have another dog.
Five weeks ago, we didn’t even have any inclination to consider having another dog, let alone a puppy. Donna’s sister Paula wanted to go with her family to Mont Tremblant for five days. Due to circumstances in their universe, they needed someone to babysit Zeus, a Rhodesian Ridgeback. We were the answer – Donna and I like Zeus. We also missed the presence of a dog since we had to euthanize Chloe, our fourteen-year-old Chocolate Lab, last August. I missed going to the fridge and looking around the door to see two eyes looking at me and saying, “What are we getting out of the fridge, Dad? May I have some, too?”
I miss sharing a piece of cheese. I haven’t eaten either end of a banana in over ten years. With cucumbers and mushrooms, I missed sharing a piece of cheese. I haven’t eaten either end of a banana in over ten years. The first cucumbers and mushroom pieces were Chloe’s, and I had no right to eat them.
Additionally, after Chloe’s passing, I had a tough time motivating myself to wake the sun up and go for my morning walk. It was my firm belief that after picking up dog poop first thing in the morning, I could deal with anything that came my way. What could be worse than picking up dog poop? That put a lot of things in perspective.
Curious about timing or part of the master plan?
I used to call my morning walks “getting!” Zeus was a delight to babysit; afterward, we felt ready for our next four-legged companion.
Donna was looking at a Facebook post by her cousin’s daughter, Rebecca. She posted pictures of their latest litter, one of which was the cutest White Labrador Retriever. After seeing that picture, I asked Donna if she would consider a White one. I guess the answer was yes. She started communicating with Rebecca and discovered that it was not spoken for, and they would let us put dibs on it. When Donna asked me about adopting “Pup 2”, I said, “Let’s go for it.”
The conversation eventually led to Donna asking where the puppy was located. “West of Red Deer in the foothills of the Rockies in Alberta!” That usually would have stopped most people. Not us!
When we discovered they couldn’t mail the pup, and we didn’t want the dog to suffer a traumatic flight, I suggested a road trip! Anyone who knows me appreciates my love for exploring, especially road trips. Unlike the other trips, this one would be more about getting there and back as quickly as possible. This round trip would be approximately 8,000 kilometres long. It would be in the dead of winter around the Great Lakes, some of the most challenging highways because of length and lack of services. It’s 1,920 kilometres to get out of Ontario and into Manitoba. Want some perspective? It’s the same distance from our house in Mississauga to the outskirts of Miami, Florida! As a bonus, we could add visits to our cousins Monique (Edmonton) and Harold (Lethbridge).
Additionally, winter in the areas we are heading into has some of the harshest weather in the world. Blizzards and lake-effect snow are a regular occurrence. Wawa is on the receiving end of Superior’s worst lake-effect snow possible. The Prairies offer their inhospitable clippers – Alberta gets its “Clippers,” Saskatchewan calls theirs “Screamers,” and not to be outdone, Manitoba calls theirs “Maulers.” I don’t know what a low-pressure system is – in my layperson’s terms, it is a high-wind storm that crosses the prairies in two to three days. These storms typically don’t have a lot of snow but can drop 3 to 6 inches in a short time. The blizzard effects make any stretch dangerous to traverse. You can’t see 100 yards ahead of you, and winter weather warnings advise you to change travel plans.
To tackle that issue, we made two travel rules—this trip. We would travel in fair weather and daylight hours only. If there were any adverse weather issues, we would stay in place for one, two or three extra days. This was neither a race nor a tourist attraction type of trip. We would only see any terrain presented to us from the highway.
Overall, we spent 106 hours driving in the car and 8,100 total kilometres. Weather and road closures prevented us from travelling three times. We spent those extra nights in Sault Ste Marie, Regina and Cochrane. On the whole trip, we drove two hours in bad weather and possibly two or three after sundown. There were snow-packed, icy road surfaces for perhaps three or four hours. The rest of the drive was on good to great roads—hats off to the snowplowing services in all the provinces.
We were prepared for just about any development. I purchased a steel spare gas tank and filled it. We never passed a gas station when our gas tanks were close to half. We had extra blankets, emergency candles and even a portable battery booster. I ensured we had a block heater and brought a longer extension cord. We plugged in the block heater six times on the travel part. My measuring stick for plugging the car was minus twenty Celsius or below.
I would research the following three cities' road, weather and travel conditions. I joined groups that discussed traffic conditions and government 511 road conditions every morning. We would drive as far as we could and discuss our ultimate destination at lunchtime. At that time, we would book our accommodation for the night. On the way back, we added a pet-friendly category.
We intended to drive a minimum of 500 to a maximum of 700 kilometres a day.
The followers of the Kerba’s Odyssey
Our daughter, Tara, volunteered (sort of) to babysit our cat and house. In the past, we would have updated family and friends by posting a Facebook event of the day. However, as Tara also had our granddaughter Ri with her, we avoided a Facebook update for safety. We updated family and friends by email. As we continued the journey, more people asked to be included, and the list of followers grew. We were blown away by how many people followed our road trip. Some were genuinely worried about our safety and appreciated knowing that we arrived at our destination safely each night. At some point, we also learned that many shared our adventures. Often, when I was late sending the broadcast, I would get a text message or phone call to get an early jump on our progress.
The joyful hand-off
We didn’t have an exact pick-up date as our trip entirely depended on the weather. We didn’t have any clue how the weather would cooperate. By mid-week of the first week, we scheduled to pick up Willow on Saturday, eight days after we left home. This included a three-night visit with my cousin in Edmonton.
Friday, we get a text from Rebecca, our breeder. The puppies had an eye discharge that bothered her enough to take all three to their vet. He wanted to keep them under observation overnight or possibly over the weekend. We accommodated her by spending an extra night on the road chasing wild horse photo opportunities in the foothills of the Rockies.
The dogs’ eyes improved dramatically enough that the vet released them in Rebecca’s charge and gave her the go-ahead for us to pick Willow up and head home. Unfortunately, one puppy was in worse shape than the other two, and the vet decided to do different tests on her.
We changed our plans again and arranged to pick Willow up on Sunday. We would have lunch with Rebecca’s family, then head from that area on to Lethbridge. The whole time we were there, Willow was a ball of energy, chasing one or another of the children. She loved grabbing the socks of the four-year-old.
Willow was born on a farm Southwest of Red Deer in the foothills of the Rockies. She was the only white one of the litter of three. She was the litter's most significant, innovative, and lively, but I am biased. There were four children to play with and a farm to run around. I’m not an expert on farming operations or sizes, but I sensed it was a relatively small operation. They had forty head of cattle. Suppose memory served me correctly, about fifteen horses and fifteen or so goats. I’m only using Rebecca’s name, and out of concern for their privacy, I’m not sharing her husband’s or children’s names.
The triumphant return trip home
Eventually, after we picked Willow up, it was her show, as pictures of her were circulated. Now, we have more followers on our email list.
On the road, total strangers would stop what they were doing to pet her. Parking lots and hotel lobbies were Willow-showing-off opportunities. She revelled in it, too. As soon as she saw someone new, she would stare at them until they broke down and came to greet her. When they did, she would be up on her hind legs, tail wagging a mile a minute. I think she was trying to tell them that we were abducting her and taking her to Ontario.
Three of those opportunities for Willow come to mind:
The first was in Regina when I entered the hotel lobby after a potty break (Willow’s). Another snowbound traveller was checking in. He stopped that process when he saw us coming in and asked me if I would wait for him to go and get his wife so they could both pet her.
East of Thunder Bay at a trucker rest area. Two young guys in pickup trucks pulled off the road – one for a nature call. The other was east of Thunder Bay at a truckers’ rest area. Two young guys in pick-up trucks pulled off the road – one for a nature call. The other jumped out of his car and asked if he could pet her, and they became fast friends.
In Kapuskasing, the hotel lobby clerk was so in love with Willow that we had to stop each time we passed the lobby, so they In Kapuskasing, the hotel lobby clerk was so in love with Willow that we had to stop each time we passed the lobby so they could both play and cuddle.
We notice a leg tremor.
I’m not sure if we noticed a minor leg tremor on the first or second night with Willow. We also noticed that she, I’m not sure if it was the first or second night with Willow, that we saw a minor leg tremor. We also noticed that she was somewhat restless late at night or needed more of a workout to sleep. Donna walked her up and down the hotel lobby until 3:00 AM to ensure I could sleep and be fresh enough to drive. I would try to get her a run outside each day, and she loved it.
Willow was a smart one. It didn’t take her long to realize that she would get “Good Potty Willow” once she peed. She would immediately turn around and sit down, expecting a treat. She was not budging until there was that treat. Interestingly, her other constitutional need had to be elevated on a snowbank or drift. She would zig-zag constantly, looking for higher elevation to do the deed. She was followed by the quick turn and sitting in anticipation of that treat.
One night, I played fetch with her inside the hotel room. She trained me to throw a ball down to the other end of the room. Just like that, when she retrieved it and dropped it before me, she expected my Pavlovian response of giving her a treat. As I mentioned, she was a fast learner. In the meantime, the tremor was getting stronger.
We needed to use a different route on the way home. Instead of Highway 17 along Lake Superior, a weather advisory made us use the inland route and Highway 11. Our destination was Cochrane, but we stopped in Kapuskasing instead due to the dark on Friday night.
A significant winter storm was about to hit our route directly. We decided to leave Kapuskasing early Saturday morning and get as much road under our belt as possible. We got to Cochrane two hours later and decided to be prudent and hunker down in the first pet-friendly option. The hotel agreed to let us check in before 11:00 AM. Saturday night would not be in our beds after all. The tremor was getting worse, and after lunch, Willow threw up six times in short succession. She resisted eating and drinking. We gave her Gravol, but she was restless. As she refused water, we started giving it to her with a syringe.
There wasn’t a comfortable position for Willow to settle in. She would lay somewhere, then whine and move to a different position in what seemed to be fifteen to twenty seconds. We still had an eight-hour drive, and I needed some sleep. I eventually had to put earplugs in while Donna held, cuddled, and stroked Willow to get her to settle down. At 3:00 AM, I noticed that Rebecca had texted us earlier to tell us that the sickly pup was diagnosed with distemper.
A quick search indicated that the previous issue with the eyes, the throwing up and the tremors suggested that Willow may have the same virus. But how can this be? She was the picture of good health, running and playing hard. Willow was the biggest by far of all the pups; as Donna said, she was perfect and lively – but denying the potential of that disease striking her wouldn’t help us for an instant.
What exactly is Canine Distemper
Put simply, it is an insipid virus that has no cure. If it strikes a puppy before all vaccines are done – the terminal rate is extremely high. Canine distemper occurs throughout the world, but in the developed world and countries like Canada, cases are sporadic because of the vaccines.
In our search and reaching out for help, three long-serving veterinarians were consulted via family, friends and work colleagues. None of them had faced a dog with distemper. Symptoms seem to progress, and once the virus gets to the brain, it can cause a dramatic decline. Or they could remain constant.
It’s highly contagious and can be transmitted from wild animals such as raccoons, skunks or coyotes to dogs. Once in dogs, each one will have disease progression unique to the circumstances, such as: What stage of the vaccine? How old is the puppy/dog? How healthy is the host?
The final leg home
We left Cochrane as early as possible, knowing that time was of the essence. It was still almost eight hours from home. We didn’t know if there was medication we could give Willow to at least calm her down, as she was getting extremely restless. We stopped the car every hour and gave her some non-car time and a pee break. We only had Gravol at our disposal; she has already received the recommended dosage. She drank water out of her bowl and food out of my hands.
Willow was uncomfortable, and her rate and volume of yelping increased – it was now almost coyote howling. The sound in the car was highly distressing for all three of us. At first, we started reaching out to the areas we were travelling through.
North Bay was a three-hour drive away. We called the emergency hospital. The first question – would they look at our sick pet? The answer was a hard no after they found out we were not patients of their local area. To top it off, no one would recommend anything by phone. I don’t have any better solution. We do understand just how difficult a time vets are having these days. We do know how stressful we are all getting and how overwhelming life is. We only knew that we had a distressed puppy in our lap.
We started reaching out to friends who have friends who are vets—the answers – in all cases. “I haven’t seen a case of this in my career. Unfortunately, if the diagnosis is accurate, it will be the worst of all outcomes.” In the three hours between Cochrane and home, we recruited our daughter to open an online account for a vet Zoom session. She did so, struggling to set up verification codes. We opened the account and pulled off the highway on a side road with a consistent signal strong enough to do the Zoom session. It would have been too easy to work the first time – we had video but no sound. Eventually, the vet called Donna on her phone for the audio part and my phone for the video. Diagnosis – Distemper. The best thing to do was notify an emergency hospital, alert them, and take her in as soon as possible.
The next possible emergency hospital that serviced the area from Huntsville through to Orillia was in Barrie. That was only an hour from our home hospital. We called them and told them we were five to six hours away and to prepare for us. One of our free emergency hospitals, which could serve the area from Huntsville to Orillia, was in Barrie. That was only an hour from our home hospital. We called them and told them we were five to six hours away and to prepare for us. One of our friends told us we should call the hospital when we were closer to give them time to set up intake protocols. We did call them when we were an hour out.
At last, some relief was in sight. In the meantime, poor Willow was getting even more distressed, and howls were downright harrowing and gut-wrenching. That relief was short-lived as the hospital decided they would not accommodate us. They said that they had no way to create an isolation area and we would need to drive an hour further to the vet college in Guelph. There would have to be two conditions met – we needed to be prepared to commit to paying between $3,000 and $5,000 as well as provide the evidence that Willow’s sibling’s diagnosis was indeed Distemper. We weren’t going to let money be our issue. We reached out to Rebecca, who accommodated us by sending the documents, and we relayed them to Guelph. We were already halfway to Guelph without even knowing they would accommodate us.
Ultimate diagnosis and decision
Intake took almost two hours – it was decided that she would need to be kept overnight and possibly more for tests and observations. Unbeknownst to me, part of the delay was taking a deposit for the fee. Once I asked point-blank, the person on the other end of the line admitted that was the case. She offered to take payment by phone. I drove the car before Donna even took her credit card out of her wallet. We were all exhausted.
The next day, we got a phone call from Dr. Castillo, a faculty member who had encountered distemper in his native Mexico. They needed to observe Willow for some days and report to us.
He did as he promised, with two calls a day – first thing in the morning and last thing before he left for the day. Most of the news we received was positive: Willow is eating, drinking, active, and popular. Finally, we could take her home Wednesday night. We jumped at the opportunity.
Before I go further, we believe our pets deserve a happy, relatively healthy life. We think that keeping them alive despite any quality is not fair. We were prepared to live with a dog with only three legs. If this insidious disease were arrested at the current level, we would do our best to cope.
We needed to prepare for what Willow came home looking and acting like. The virus had done more damage than we anticipated. Her entire rear end collapsed when she tried to walk. She dragged her leg, which had tremors. The whole rear end would twist as she tried to compensate for the one leg – often failing two or three times before getting upright and going. At times, she even peed on her leg.
Again, there appeared to be no position comfortable enough to remain longer than twenty or thirty seconds. She would lie down, close her eyes and within thirty seconds, start to whine, get up and look for a more comfortable position. She was exhausted. There were two times overnight that I could hold on to her long enough that she slept in my arms for one hour.
She started to calm down a bit, ate and drank. I took her outside, where she peed and pooped, of course turning around to look for her treat. I also got her to sleep in my arms some more, this time for almost two hours, when I restricted her movement and provided a dark place.
The virus was not done with her – and we were not willing to watch her suffer at this level. I contacted Dr Castillo, informing him of our decision to euthanize. He said that he agreed with us. I offered the college her body on one condition – we were not prepared to put her or us through another hour of howling and distress. She would have to be euthanized in Mississauga. I was ready to donate the body if they wanted to study the disease further. We found a local veterinarian who could accommodate an isolation-style procedure, met with them at five and delivered the body to Guelph at six-thirty.
All told we had a healthy, happy puppy for four days!
Epilogue
It was the unbelievable alignment of so many factors that made this story:
Us being ready for another dog
Seeing the image on Facebook
Us having the need and time for a road trip
Being able to afford all of this
The unfortunate rare timing of this puppy getting that disease in winter
Having a Doctor at Guelph with experience due to his heritage
The sheer number of friends and relatives who thought that Willow was almost a cult figure that needed to be followed. She even had a group chat called the “Willow Squad.”
The over 250 photographs and videos documenting the disease's progression will be shared with Guelph College.
The weather delays made us arrive later than we anticipated. Had we arrived a few days earlier, we would have exposed our vet's office to a highly contagious disease without warning.
Maybe all those things aligned as part of the master plan. I know that if there is any minute consolation, Maybe all those things align as part of the master plan for a reason. I know that if there is any minute consolation in this nightmare – it is the opportunity for an entire class at Guelph to have more hands-on exposure to a disease that most Canadian vets haven’t seen in a quarter of a century. We couldn’t choose those circumstances. However, we could choose our reaction. One only hopes all this was for a reason. We decided to use positive thoughts that poor Willow, in her short life, significantly touched many lives. I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven’t heard the end of the Willow story.
