It’s weird how connected one can get to an animal. They are a member of your family and you treat them as such. Maybe not everyone in the family, but as soon as they are out of the room you spoil that big guy. You would go through such lengths to make sure they were properly cared for and would nearly pay anything to help them.

We moved to Florida on military orders back in September of 2008. A year later we got that yellow guy to the left. His name is Sage, of course after Sage Fly Rods. All of my animals have been named after something fishing related, what else would a hardcore fly fisherman like me name them after? There was something about him that really made him pop out of the litter. It was a combination of traits that Sage possessed that we really loved. Even Chloe our daughter had an immediate connection. She is a little obsessed with dogs, especially puppies. I don’t know if all little girls are like this, but she absolutely loves them. What made Sage different from all of the others were his facial colors. He’s not colored like your typical Labrador with the black nose, snout and eyes. The main reason he stuck out was the pink/peach colorization he had. It really made him unique and we really took a liking to it. I grew up with a couple labs that my father had, Jack and Buddy. Jack has since passed, and Buddy’s age is getting up there. He’s super healthy and still at his age, very athletic. All I ever wanted of my own was a fishing buddy and a best friend. Don’t get me wrong, I have my daughter who loves fishing and LOVE taking her, but she can’t make it on every trip, nor does she want to. Sage doesn’t care about anything, but making me happy and sure does hate it when I leave. He’s not the best at staying with me, but when he does get the chance to go, he has a blast. Most times when he goes out, I let him off the leash and he disappears. Sage is an adventurist type and doesn’t like to be restrained. He will come back, but tends to vanish into the woods and returns when it suits him. I may be his best friend, but in his mind he’s still the boss. Due to the high amounts of Alligator and poisonous snakes in NW Florida, it is very scary to take your pets with you, at least for me it is. I’m very scared of losing him to some nasty gator hiding just below the surface. I don’t trust the wildlife around here. Back in the Northwest, you don’t have to worry about these kinds of things. You’ve got wildlife, but for the most part, nothing you need to worry about. Even back in Alaska where we lived previously we really didn’t have anything to worry about. Sure there is towering Grizzlies, and mammoth Black Bears, but if you make yourself known you have nothing to worry about. I feel safe roaming the river banks, just as someone from Florida feels safe roaming the swamps. That’s why they call it home, home is safe.

Following my deployment last year I received orders back to Alaska. It was the best news I had heard since we arrived to Florida. I can still remember it perfectly. It was funny because my wife didn’t believe me. What are the odds someone gets orders home? Usually very slim. We actually depart Hurlburt Field on the first of July for our 4,500 mile journey across the states and back through the beautiful Canada. It’s been roughly six months since we got the orders. Getting those orders really was the best thing that has happened to us in a long time, it’s almost as if we go through very long periods of straight bad luck then we get good news. Lately it’s been on the bad news side. Today we had a vet appointment for Sage to get him cleared for his Health certificate to cross the border. He’s never had anything traumatic happen to him at the vet, so for the most part he tends to be pretty excited when he goes. Maybe it’s the smells, or just all the animals, but he gets very excited. He cleared everything and we thought to get him checked for Heartworms. It was probably some of longest ten minutes in my life. If you’ve ever done a speech in front of a large amount of people and were absolutely nervous, you know what I mean. The verdict was delivered…positive…Worst word I have heard in my life. My heart was crushed and found myself picking my jaw up off the ground. How can this be? He had been on heartworm prevention, but I guess there were a few months that were missed here and there. It wasn’t given on a steady basis. I never realized how severe of a problem heartworm was here. Sage was tested back in September and came back negative. I guess it takes seven months for it to either reach his heart or develop to a point of being seen through a blood test. So during his last test he was either developing it, or had not yet been bitten with an infected mosquito. From what the vet said, it sounded like animals can still get heartworm even if on heartworm prevention. It just all depends. There is a thin line where animals still can get it. Sage was either that thin line, or at a gap in the preventions. From what they can tell, we did catch it early. He is in perfect health otherwise, no problems. He has started taking prevention again today, as well as another med to kill parasites that heartworms are known to survive from. At the very least we know it has now been stopped and anything below a mature adult has or will be killed. Any adults are killed through three shots. It’s a pretty penny, but we will do whatever it takes to fix this. Besides us knowing now and after the treatment is complete, nothing will change. In Alaska we will be back at what we love doing the most, chasing huge rainbows up and down the river. Today was a learning experience, glad we caught it early, but we will be paying a little more now. Comparing prevention to treatment, it is a huge difference. I’m not going to preach or anything, but please be diligent. You can learn from my mistake of missing a month of prevention here and there. I know I won’t ever miss a month of prevention, ever again.