Martin

In March 2001, the cutest little puppy was born!  Jared and I were not even married, or engaged for that matter, but we knew we wanted to get a puppy.  Neighbours of my mom were selling Golden Labrador puppies and so we went for a look, and instantly fell in love.  They were such a pretty colour, butterscotch!  The runt of the litter was the one we had our eyes set on.  The family was only charging $100 for purebred Labs, how could we pass that up?!  So our rubber arms were twisted and we left with the cutest puppy ever!  Now to name the little guy!  We finally decided on Martin, after Jared's favourite guitar!  And did the name ever suit him.  Martin lived with Jared on his mom and dad's farm, and when I came home on the weekends we would usually spend our time with Martin.  We would take him down to Baldwin's crossing to go for a swim in the river, something he absolutely loved!

Steve really liked Martin too!  You would often see them together when he came out to the farm.

When Jared and I got married the next February we didn't take him to live with us in Carmangay because we didn't think it would be fair to keep him confined to a yard when he was used to roaming all around the farm, but that doesn't mean we didn't bring him for visits!  He loved car rides, all we had to say was, "Martin, you wanna go for a ride?" And his ears would perk up and he would run to the back of the truck waiting for us to put the end gate down!  We also brought him home with us to Carmangay every Christmas Eve so he could spend Christmas with us!

Martin's First Birthday present, a brand new shiny red collar!

One of many Christmas Eve's!

We celebrated Martin's 1st birthday with a homemade dog food filled cake!  Our first Christmas card sent to everyone included Martin!  And once Emry came along she giggled every time she saw him!

The summer after Emry was born, mid 2004, Martin ran full speed into the decorative Sickle Mower and cut his shoulder open quite badly.  We took him to the vet and she fixed him up real good, the cutest thing ever was that he got to wear a women's 3/4 length sleeve t-shirt so he wouldn't lick the wound.  He looked so adorable and it fit him perfectly!  I think he really missed that shirt once it finally disintegrated off him!

Martin in his shirt!

Once we moved out to the farm in 2007, Emry had just turned 3, and she would spend hours outside with Martin.  She leash trained him that year as a three year old, she would clip the leash on and he would walk right beside her for hours.  This was quite amazing since I could hardly stay upright with Martin when I tried to walk him on a leash!  They were always together and I didn't worry about Emry at all when she was outside because I knew Martin was always right with her!

As the years went on, Martin definitely started to look older, his fur around his face started to turn grey, and one winter we were sure he wasn't going to make it, he had gotten so skinny, and his hips were starting to seize up and it would take him awhile to get up.  He also slowed down a lot, instead of running to greet us he would walk.

Martin was always where ever we were, usually just laying down, but he wanted to be right with Jared all the time!

We did get another lab puppy in 2009, so Martin could be an example to him before he did get too old.  I am so happy we did this because I think Gibson is quite a bit like Martin.

Emry saw these stuffies after she went to the dentist and thought they looked just like her puppies, she named them Martin and Gibson! 

When we moved over our house, both the dogs just instinctively knew who their master was!  Even though Jared still fed them in the kennel at Myrna's they always hung out on the step at our house!  And at night they will sleep by our front door!  I was so happy when they did this, I really like having them around; and as annoying as it was at times when Martin would lay in front of the door and not even make an effort to move while we tried to get out the door, it was also quite sweet!

Yesterday, August 19, 2012 Martin passed away.  Emry and Jared had gone outside for a walk and when Emry couldn't find Martin she went and looked for him.  She found him in their kennel laying against the fence, quite peacefully, his eyes were open but he didn't move when she went up to him.  She ran out and told Jared that she thought he had died because he wasn't moving.  She was pretty upset, they were really good pals!  It was so sad, but also expected at some point, he was almost 12 years old in human years so we figured that made him almost 84 in dog years.  We will forever miss him, but we are so thankful for the memories we had with him and for the amazing dog he was, he truly was a member of our family.  We loved Martin so much and we will miss him!

Our old boy!