Dennis Cartopholes Wright

"Denny"

This was Denny the day we brought him home. Our first Labrador Retriever. We didn't have any idea the love affair we had started on! We and Denny did all the normal first time owners, first dog things. Or at least Raymond and Denny did. The Air Force suggested I leave 10 days after we got the boy. They sent me off to Texas for a school for 6 weeks. Which left Raymond to receive all the housegoods when they arrived from Germany and housebreak a puppy! He did a very good job, but there was something about a vacuum cleaner -- Raymond was rather vague. Washing the sleeping bags (we didn't have a bed yet) because the puppy got scared. For the rest of his life, when the vacuum came out, Denny left the room!

We made all the first time owner mistakes. Thought most of the things he did were cute and when he gets "older" we'll worry about making him stop things like jumping up. One day when Denny was about 5-6 months, I was talking to my next door neighbor by the fence, when she got the most horrifying look on her face! I turned around to see what was going on when I got hit in the solar plexus by 50 lb. of cute puppy! Some obedience had to be done and I'm sure now that we did it all wrong. But we muddled through and loved him unconditionally!

Denny was around 18 months when he had his first seizure. I didn't even know dogs could have epilepsy. We thought he was dying! Rushed him to the emergency vet twice that day. He was on medication for the rest of his short life. Everything was ok for another 18 months, then the medications didn't seem to work anymore. We went through everything the vets had to offer for the next 6 months. The week before Denny left us, he was taking 18 pills a day and still having seizures. He was so doped up, when I took him outside, he would walk into the fence. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but Raymond and I agreed that it was necessary.

Dennis Cartopholes Wright left us on January 12, 1982

He was about 3 1/2 years old, as we never knew his birthday, he was around 10 weeks old when he became a part of our family. Denny deserved a very special day, so we celebrated his birthday on July 4! He was a free puppy from the paper, but he started us on such a love affair!