Chewy — Movin’ On

May 30, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 37
California / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography

Northern California

Chewy’s last year was testament to the way life works and to the fact that it eventually comes full circle. No one is exempt.

He had various maladies and he had great vets. One thing that really cramped his style was arthritis. Someone told us about a holistic vet in Los Gatos who did acupuncture treatments. Our attitude was, “it can’t hoit” so on January 16, 2016, we took him. As it happened, after the last needle was pulled, we immediately made the tree-hour drive to visit family in the Sierra foothills — not too far from where he was born.

When we got there, we took him to a dog park. To our delighted surprise, he was running and chasing balls like a four-year-old. As we stared at him in amazement, we realized that the is no such thing as a placebo effect in dogs. The acupuncture worked. He was a bounding boy, full of joy.

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January 16, 2016. “I’m young again!”

Still, it was not meant to last forever. Between April and May, age caught up with him. This, that, and the other thing. In April we took him to the Sonoma coast and made the final Christmas card picture.

On the morning of May 27, 2016, he looked at me and told me he wanted to move on.

And so he did.

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April 23, 2016. Like his humans, one of his favorite things to do was to look out to sea and contemplate the horizon. An old sea dog.

 

PS: One more Chewy post to go. I always like to leave ’em laughin’.

The Author

California based fine-art photographer featuring abstract, impressionist, and minimalist seascapes — near and distant — and floral-based images. Fine-art photography can be seen at www.amagaphoto.com All original images on this blog are copyright 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Michael Scandling. All rights reserved. No images on this site may be copied, duplicated, reused, published, or re-purposed in any way without express permission from the copyright owner, Michael Scandling.

37 Comments

  2. Steve Gingold says

    We had a similar experience with Murphy. He was diagnosed in October of 2014 with cancer in several organs and given a month or two. But he decided to stay around until the following June 5th and, like Chewy, told us when it was time to let him go.
    As we have seen in the previous posts, the pictures here and what surely will be more proof in the next, Chewy had a wonderful life full of fun and lots of love. What more could a dog ask?

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    • Michael Scandling says

      Thank you. Awful lot of subjunctive case in that article. Could. Might. Can be. Possibly…

      In this case, they were a number of factors, which I could detail, that indicated to us that the acupuncture itself was actually working. But in the end, who cares? He was happier and more active than he’d been in months. And that went on until the rest of his body crapped out.

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  8. sloppy buddhist says

    🐶🥰❣️ heartfelt…always a hard story to live…I know the phase old and then ancient…dogs have taught me a lot along the way as well Michael 🤓 smiles Hedy

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  9. bluebrightly says

    It’s wonderful to have that respite from watching your pretty suffer, I’m sure you really appreciated it. Like Steve, o found that article fascinating. Looking forward to the last/ next installment! Enjoy your weekend…

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  12. marina kanavaki says

    Ah, that ‘full circle’… still, we wish we could’ve had more time with them.
    As I said in a previous Chewy post… wise pup. And yes, they do teach us, so much.
    Beautiful life for a beautiful dog.

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  13. Leya says

    I too had a sea dog – Mille. Arthritis – yes, he had two times an injection of vitamin D, which gave him each time about 12 months of a younger life.
    Milo, our 2 year old (you saw him on the photo Wednesday) is a copy of Mille to look at – but not that wild. Wild, but moderately…
    Love the look of Chewy. And do you know – Milo’s best friend is a labradoodle by the name of Esther. Love the way they run and play with each other. Milo would have loved to meet Chewy – maybe they will in the end.

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