Durham's Epic Bucket List Adventure

For all of you who haven't seen my emotional photo/post vomit on my Instagram and Facebook, I recently had to make the tough decision to put my 13.5 year old Golden named Durham down on June 2nd. The decision came after a diagnosis of cancer a year ago and thanks to my absolutely amazing vet we were able to get him through an entire year. 

Durham was an amazing dog - for anyone who hasn't met or known him, he's been my best friend for 11.5 years. He's a rescued Golden Retriever who was on his fourth home by the time he came to us. He was a runner, completely food obsessed and just a crazy dog. Over the years he mellowed out (and honed his food stealing skills). He was well-known for his sweetheart attitude and stomach of steel. On top of making friends wherever he went he was also a Therapy Dog with the St-John's Ambulance Therapy Dog program.

When I came home from my work rotation it was obvious that he wasn't doing great. A tumor had started to come out in his eye which was very painful and it was only growing. I booked the date at the end of my time off and set out making up a bucket list of things to do before June 2nd. 

On the bucket list we had:

- Go to the cottage
- Eat a whole steak
- Share ice cream with mom (but light on the sharing part)
- Spend a whole afternoon napping
- Car rides with the windows down
- Eat a whole McDonald's burger
- FaceTime with my friend Laessy (and the weird small one)
- Go sit by the lake
- Eggs for breakfast
- Sit in the backyard in the sun

I'm really happy to say we got to do all of the list and more! Here are some pictures from our Bucket List Adventure:

We spent a lot of our two weeks taking some pretty serious naps. They were awesome.

We also hung out with the cats - even the screamy weird one.

Had to go out for ice cream - before mom could get a spoonful I made sure to thoroughly drool on all of the ice cream. Surprisingly she didn't want to share after that.

It was gorgeous throughout the week so we spent a lot of time outside in the backyard. 

Mom went out and bought a lot of good food for the whole two weeks - including Beneful! She kept saying something about how I was eating better than she was most of the time.

I got to go to Tim Horton's every single morning for Timbits. This is mom's pre-coffee expression - this is my pre-Timbit expression. 

We went to the cottage for a little bit. I walked around in the lake while the two fast ones ran around like idiots. Mom got some great pictures and I was pretty damn happy about it - even with the bugs.

I also got to Skype/FaceTime with my really good friend Laessy from New Brunswick. We woke her up and she didn't look impressed at all but I had fun! 

The best part by far was the night I got an entire steak for dinner. It had ketchup and was garnished all pretty - and I licked that all off and tried to swallow the steak whole...

Mom said I would choke myself to death if I swallowed this whole...I don't agree...

My last night mom brought her bed into the living room and we had a giant sleepover - I ended up stealing most of the mattress, don't let my taking up only a small corner fool you.

On my last day we had a really really special day. It started with an entire breakfast of eggs and beggin (beggin strips) with a whole hamburger bun on top. I grabbed the hamburger buns and ran and then came back from the eggs. 

I spent the rest of the day napping and hanging out with mom outside in the backyard. 

Before we went to the vets office mom brought me to McDonald's and ordered four cheeseburgers. We went out and sat around Gillies Lake and ate our cheeseburgers and sat in the sun for a bit. 

 Durham passed away peacefully on June 2nd, 2015 beside myself, my best friend and our amazing vet Dr. Millson. In addition to being my best friend Durham was also an amazing Therapy Dog and expert counter surfer/cake pan opener. There aren't the words to describe how much he'll be missed.