Ryder.

Once all the hullabaloo surrounding our RV wreck settled I had time to think about what had happened to us. A postscript to the wreck was the loss of our beloved Ryder. There was the tire, the crash, injuries, hospitals and a lot of other stuff that happened to us, and oh, yes, we lost Ryder. Ryder was the first fox red Labrador Retriever I’d had from a puppy. His father was Ben’s red dog Flyer. I wrote quite a bit about Ryder and our journey to where he became the mascot for our travels. You can read about that in my post Some Dogs are Like That. We have hundreds (maybe thousands) of pictures of Ryder between the two of us. I tried to put some of the photos here that illustrate his character.

Ryder is the original Red Dog on Wheels. His face has graced this blog header since I started it in 2015. He has been on every RV trip we made for 9 of his 11 years. He adapted easily to a life of travel. He was overjoyed with every rest stop and opportunity to scout out new smells and questionable substances. He never complained when he had to be crated for hours while repairmen worked on the coach. He was always a good boy even when he was dragging poor Ben around the campground on his eternal quest to find weird stuff. He greeted everyone he met with his big smile, and everyone who met him would say “what a beautiful dog and what beautiful eyes he has!” Ryder knew the worth of his soulful stare as it got him lots of treats. On last year’s trip to Florida, he’d start pulling mightily on the leash when we rounded the corner to the fifth wheel where he always got a cookie from its owner.

He was a big puppy with a big personality. Ryder loved water. He was a powerful swimmer, He’d crash into the water, put his head down and swim as if he had jet propulsion. We made sure he got into the water everywhere we went. He swam in the North Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, in the icy waters of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, and in glacial lakes and rivers of the Canadian Rockies. He taught himself to body surf and had quite a few good runs. He also liked swamp water and mud holes, which he always found despite our best attempts to prevent him. He enjoyed the company of other dogs, but at a certain point he would go his own way in search of a list of smells on his personal, undisclosed agenda.

When I was in the hospital at The Ohio State University, I got to know the nurses, PAs, aides and staff as I got transferred to different areas. I made a slide show of the accident pictures on my iPad because I just couldn’t talk about it. I showed the pictures to everyone who cared for me. One houskeeping staff was an especially nice lady. “Florine is my name,” she told me. “It’s just like Chlorine, only Florine, but I tell everyone to call me Flo.” Each day she came by to mop my floor, and we talked about our lives. I told her about the wreck, showed her a picture of Ryder. On the last day I was on her floor, Flo came by with a bag from the gift shop. I opened it and pulled out a stuffed dog. “This is to remind you of your precious dog waiting for you,” she said. “God has more plans for you or you wouldn’t be here. You remember that He is watching over you and so is your dog.” And she left. I haven’t seen Flo since, but I made sure the hospital knew of her kindness to me. Brandon, my nurse in the same unit suggested I name my new pet Peaches, so I did. Peaches went with me to all the rest of my hospital/rehab stays, and is home with me now. If I go for more surgery, Peaches will come with me.

Anyone who has loved a pet knows the empty feeling of loss at some point. Ryder went everywhere we did. We think he enjoyed it—he barreled to the RV door when it was time to leave home. We loved him fiercely all his life. Our Big Red Dog will be with us for always.