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- Dec 5, 2005
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As you all have heard by now, Haley and Adam Desrosiers lost their brand new shop/guest house/chillout place to an all consuming fire, along with everything in it that wasn't made to handle extreme heat.
What you may not have heard, is that Adam and Haley's canine companions, Neva and Shadowynn, perished in the blaze. To me, this is the saddest part of the whole affair, and apart from my admiration of the Desrosiers, the inspiration behind a project thought up by Ryan Weeks which I've chosen to run with.
What follows are the elequently written words of both Haley and Adam, and in posts after, a project designed to assist them in rebuilding without putting contributors into a position that requires more from them than donating some time. It's important to the Desrosiers that those who want to help them don't overburden themselves financially, and that's the foundational consideration of this project.
******
From Haley;
Lorien,
Well we call them puppies but really Shadowynn had just turned 11 this December. She was my dark chocolate angel, I got her as a little curly, button nose thing when I was 20. I was publishing a book of poetry at the time and the Authors picture on the back cover was a cropping of me picking her up at the airport and the delight of having her in my arms the first time.
You probably know I love critters, wild and otherwise and have bottle fed and eyedropper nursed just about everything you could imagine but of all the little hearts Ive connected with over the years Shadowynn was my favorite. She went everywhere with me, commercial fishing, freight hauling, she would ride beside me on the floor of the excavator while I worked and sleep at the foot of my bed or beside my bunk at night. If I ever tried to leave her on the big boat to do a job on the beach she would hurl herself over the rail that was above her head height to land in the water and come to me.
I took her on a two month boat trip to the Western Aleutians her first year. Because there was no vet in our small town I got her fixed in Kodiak on the way out since there was also an intact male dog aboard. She was such a tough little thing and didn't seem to care about the pain pills they gave me one way or the other so I didnt use up the bottle. She was almost healed up when the serious caribou hunting started and I decided to wait a couple more days before I let her climb all those hills with me. I had to lock her in the galley and could barely stand her sad howls as we motored away.
As soon as we returned that night I ran to let her out and found quite the scene of debauchery. She had managed to climb the bunk rails and find the pain pills, chew open the bottle and indulge. She was sprawled out in my bed with the remains of a shredded styrofoam pillow drifting around her and her big brown eye were so dilated they looked solid black. Of course I panicked and fed her charcoal while she grinned at me but she turned out to be as bombproof as a chesapeake.
We explored Kiska island which along with Attu was the only US territory occupied by the Japanese during the war. They lived in dugout tunnels and we had opened some of them up and were wriggling down to check out the artifacts left behind. I was tamping down the panic around the edges that you get in close spaces deep underground when something shuffled down behind me and ran into my legs. I couldn't get my flashlight on it fast enough, then I realized in was Shadowynn. Shed squeezed into the shaft behind me and as usual was game for whatever I was doing.
I was pretty fascinated with the first caribou I shot and since I was into fur tanning a lot kept petting the hide and talking about what I could use it for. Shadow got visibly jealous and kept trying to get me away from it. Pretty loyal pup.
My brother had a standard poodle that I used to duck hunt with and he was incredibly clean, dodging all the puddles and dirt and could run full speed through a skiff load of fishing rods with out stepping on a single one.
Even though I had gotten Shadow from an English hunting line I assumed she would have similar tendencies. Yeahhhhh not so much. Much stockier than the show poodles you often see, if there was a mud puddle she would find it and walk through it.
We spent a lot of time flyfishing together and if I set my rod down in an entire meadow she would find it and sit on it. She had the looks and bounce of a poodle and taking her into town meant a lot of people stopping me to ask what she was since I never gave her the foo-foo haircut. I remember once when she was in her prime someone telling me how beautiful she was. In classic form my little princess sat down in front of them bolt upright, crossed her legs like a show dog and then gave this huge belch that pooched out her cheeks and proceeded to blow the foul air onto the person. That was Shadowgirl.
When Adam and I got married she gave him the serious cold shoulder, absolutely deaf to his commands and even dominance displays when we were dancing or hugging. What a little stinker.
She tried to play with Neva but she usually played too rough having grown up with a land otter for a companion she hadnt really learned to tone it down. Neva was like the perfect golden-blonde who I teased Adam was always making my dog look bad. Everywhere Neva went people loved her for how gentle and friendly she was.
In about a year our blended family quieted right down and I found Shadow choosing to lay by Adams chair after a good squirrel hunt and being gentle with Neva. One of my favorite things about Shadow is that when I let her out of the house in the morning she would go tearing out ahead of me to the shop and then run back to me grinning and bouncing and then throw herself towards the shop again. It was like having sometime yelling Oh boy!! We get to go to work again!!Yipeee!! of course her food was in there but it sure made starting my daily grind pretty happy.
Every so often she would come find me at my bench and do a little happy dance, sometimes coaxing me outside with her to play hooky up the river. She was always there for me, ready to party when things were great and she gave great hugs when things were tough. She was fishing in the salmon crick underneath the bridge when we got married, and would be sitting on top of my four wheeler when I would get back from a day trip to town. Just waiting there at the skiff landing till Mom got home so we could go kill something and she could eat it.
She was pretty much the most lovable, intelligent brute you could come across. Of course Im unabashedly biased.
I think the most ducks she brought back in one consecutive retrieve was 7. She brought back a goose on Thanksgiving this year but the last one was a little diver duck I shot for her then we took it home and cooked it up for her.
The last thing we did together was a ride in my little rowboat on the high tide. She was up in the bow checking everything out. There was a little deer laying down by the water so camouflaged you couldn't even see it until we floated past just a few feet away. It didn't move and Shadow didn't bark at it, we all just enjoyed each other and this amazing life God gave us. I cant believe shes gone, I wasnt ready to let her go.
This is probably way too much info to send you. I guess Im just taking advantage of a listening ear.
Thanks again Brother,
Haley
*****
From Adam;
What I want to do is tell you a little about the dogs to help with the spirit of the project.
Neva was my yellow lab-golden retriever mix, and Shadowynn was Haley's standard chocolate hunting Poodle. Contrary to what Haley and I as persons are like, our dogs were a bit the opposite. Neva would be the dainty sweet blond one, and Shadowynn would be the robust, rough around the edges, hunting brute.
Obviously, I am biased, but I really think Neva was the sweetest Pup in the whole world. She was one of the few dogs I have ever known that actually "asked permission" to come in the house, lay on a given rug, eat a treat, etc. No, she didn't talk, it was more of the extremely expressive way she would pause and look askance before taking any liberty.
She was an enthusiastic water retriever, and an excelent hunting companion as well as the perfect home companion. Her and I spent many years alone in the remote alaskan bush before I met Haley, and she made the isolation not just bearable, but enjoyable.
As a puppy, I would feed her the crust off my pizza whenever I made some. She loved it, and would always get excited when the pizza was cooking. She had the typical lab fettish for fetching and carrying sticks.
A funny story: while I was living in South carolina with Jason Knight, J. and I had been out in the back yard shooting clay pigions with shotguns, (one of Neva's favorite things). Jason's clay thrower was the type that you load and cock back a strong spring loaded throwing arm, and then pull a string to release the clay. Neva patiently, but enthusiastically watched us shoot up a box of clays, but was a bit dissapointed that there was rarely anything left to fetch. The next day, J. and I were in the shop working on knives and we heard Neva barking and whining, and really carrying on out back. We went out to see what was going on, and saw that Neva was jumping up and pulling the release string, trying to get the thrower to launch a stick for her to fetch! We laughed pretty hard and then loaded a stick in the thrower and let her pull the string. it worked like a charm, and she would throw and fetch her own sticks as long as she could get anybody to load for her. I wish I had gotten that on video... I will miss her dearly.
Shadowynn was not so happy when I came on the scene with Haley. The two of them had been close and exclusive pals for her whole life. We had a rocky beginning to our relationship. She saw no reason to please or even put up with me. Obedience was out of the question. We came eventually to a grudging mutual respect when I started taking her squirrel hunting, (one of her favorite things). I would shoot a squirrel and she would scarf it down whole with only a minimum of crunching of the heads. I mean, you got to admire that kind of gusto.
Shadow was the largest and ruggedest poodle I have ever seen. She exhibbited absolutely none of the delicate and arrogant airs of the typical french poodle. She was known for somewhat rude table manners, frequently passing gas and belching for company. Maybe it was her strong english or German hunting parentage. Our relationship eventually moved on to genuine afection, and I will miss her dearly too.
What you may not have heard, is that Adam and Haley's canine companions, Neva and Shadowynn, perished in the blaze. To me, this is the saddest part of the whole affair, and apart from my admiration of the Desrosiers, the inspiration behind a project thought up by Ryan Weeks which I've chosen to run with.
What follows are the elequently written words of both Haley and Adam, and in posts after, a project designed to assist them in rebuilding without putting contributors into a position that requires more from them than donating some time. It's important to the Desrosiers that those who want to help them don't overburden themselves financially, and that's the foundational consideration of this project.
******
From Haley;
Lorien,
Well we call them puppies but really Shadowynn had just turned 11 this December. She was my dark chocolate angel, I got her as a little curly, button nose thing when I was 20. I was publishing a book of poetry at the time and the Authors picture on the back cover was a cropping of me picking her up at the airport and the delight of having her in my arms the first time.
You probably know I love critters, wild and otherwise and have bottle fed and eyedropper nursed just about everything you could imagine but of all the little hearts Ive connected with over the years Shadowynn was my favorite. She went everywhere with me, commercial fishing, freight hauling, she would ride beside me on the floor of the excavator while I worked and sleep at the foot of my bed or beside my bunk at night. If I ever tried to leave her on the big boat to do a job on the beach she would hurl herself over the rail that was above her head height to land in the water and come to me.
I took her on a two month boat trip to the Western Aleutians her first year. Because there was no vet in our small town I got her fixed in Kodiak on the way out since there was also an intact male dog aboard. She was such a tough little thing and didn't seem to care about the pain pills they gave me one way or the other so I didnt use up the bottle. She was almost healed up when the serious caribou hunting started and I decided to wait a couple more days before I let her climb all those hills with me. I had to lock her in the galley and could barely stand her sad howls as we motored away.
As soon as we returned that night I ran to let her out and found quite the scene of debauchery. She had managed to climb the bunk rails and find the pain pills, chew open the bottle and indulge. She was sprawled out in my bed with the remains of a shredded styrofoam pillow drifting around her and her big brown eye were so dilated they looked solid black. Of course I panicked and fed her charcoal while she grinned at me but she turned out to be as bombproof as a chesapeake.
We explored Kiska island which along with Attu was the only US territory occupied by the Japanese during the war. They lived in dugout tunnels and we had opened some of them up and were wriggling down to check out the artifacts left behind. I was tamping down the panic around the edges that you get in close spaces deep underground when something shuffled down behind me and ran into my legs. I couldn't get my flashlight on it fast enough, then I realized in was Shadowynn. Shed squeezed into the shaft behind me and as usual was game for whatever I was doing.
I was pretty fascinated with the first caribou I shot and since I was into fur tanning a lot kept petting the hide and talking about what I could use it for. Shadow got visibly jealous and kept trying to get me away from it. Pretty loyal pup.
My brother had a standard poodle that I used to duck hunt with and he was incredibly clean, dodging all the puddles and dirt and could run full speed through a skiff load of fishing rods with out stepping on a single one.
Even though I had gotten Shadow from an English hunting line I assumed she would have similar tendencies. Yeahhhhh not so much. Much stockier than the show poodles you often see, if there was a mud puddle she would find it and walk through it.
We spent a lot of time flyfishing together and if I set my rod down in an entire meadow she would find it and sit on it. She had the looks and bounce of a poodle and taking her into town meant a lot of people stopping me to ask what she was since I never gave her the foo-foo haircut. I remember once when she was in her prime someone telling me how beautiful she was. In classic form my little princess sat down in front of them bolt upright, crossed her legs like a show dog and then gave this huge belch that pooched out her cheeks and proceeded to blow the foul air onto the person. That was Shadowgirl.
When Adam and I got married she gave him the serious cold shoulder, absolutely deaf to his commands and even dominance displays when we were dancing or hugging. What a little stinker.
She tried to play with Neva but she usually played too rough having grown up with a land otter for a companion she hadnt really learned to tone it down. Neva was like the perfect golden-blonde who I teased Adam was always making my dog look bad. Everywhere Neva went people loved her for how gentle and friendly she was.
In about a year our blended family quieted right down and I found Shadow choosing to lay by Adams chair after a good squirrel hunt and being gentle with Neva. One of my favorite things about Shadow is that when I let her out of the house in the morning she would go tearing out ahead of me to the shop and then run back to me grinning and bouncing and then throw herself towards the shop again. It was like having sometime yelling Oh boy!! We get to go to work again!!Yipeee!! of course her food was in there but it sure made starting my daily grind pretty happy.
Every so often she would come find me at my bench and do a little happy dance, sometimes coaxing me outside with her to play hooky up the river. She was always there for me, ready to party when things were great and she gave great hugs when things were tough. She was fishing in the salmon crick underneath the bridge when we got married, and would be sitting on top of my four wheeler when I would get back from a day trip to town. Just waiting there at the skiff landing till Mom got home so we could go kill something and she could eat it.
She was pretty much the most lovable, intelligent brute you could come across. Of course Im unabashedly biased.
I think the most ducks she brought back in one consecutive retrieve was 7. She brought back a goose on Thanksgiving this year but the last one was a little diver duck I shot for her then we took it home and cooked it up for her.
The last thing we did together was a ride in my little rowboat on the high tide. She was up in the bow checking everything out. There was a little deer laying down by the water so camouflaged you couldn't even see it until we floated past just a few feet away. It didn't move and Shadow didn't bark at it, we all just enjoyed each other and this amazing life God gave us. I cant believe shes gone, I wasnt ready to let her go.
This is probably way too much info to send you. I guess Im just taking advantage of a listening ear.
Thanks again Brother,
Haley
*****
From Adam;
What I want to do is tell you a little about the dogs to help with the spirit of the project.
Neva was my yellow lab-golden retriever mix, and Shadowynn was Haley's standard chocolate hunting Poodle. Contrary to what Haley and I as persons are like, our dogs were a bit the opposite. Neva would be the dainty sweet blond one, and Shadowynn would be the robust, rough around the edges, hunting brute.
Obviously, I am biased, but I really think Neva was the sweetest Pup in the whole world. She was one of the few dogs I have ever known that actually "asked permission" to come in the house, lay on a given rug, eat a treat, etc. No, she didn't talk, it was more of the extremely expressive way she would pause and look askance before taking any liberty.
She was an enthusiastic water retriever, and an excelent hunting companion as well as the perfect home companion. Her and I spent many years alone in the remote alaskan bush before I met Haley, and she made the isolation not just bearable, but enjoyable.
As a puppy, I would feed her the crust off my pizza whenever I made some. She loved it, and would always get excited when the pizza was cooking. She had the typical lab fettish for fetching and carrying sticks.
A funny story: while I was living in South carolina with Jason Knight, J. and I had been out in the back yard shooting clay pigions with shotguns, (one of Neva's favorite things). Jason's clay thrower was the type that you load and cock back a strong spring loaded throwing arm, and then pull a string to release the clay. Neva patiently, but enthusiastically watched us shoot up a box of clays, but was a bit dissapointed that there was rarely anything left to fetch. The next day, J. and I were in the shop working on knives and we heard Neva barking and whining, and really carrying on out back. We went out to see what was going on, and saw that Neva was jumping up and pulling the release string, trying to get the thrower to launch a stick for her to fetch! We laughed pretty hard and then loaded a stick in the thrower and let her pull the string. it worked like a charm, and she would throw and fetch her own sticks as long as she could get anybody to load for her. I wish I had gotten that on video... I will miss her dearly.
Shadowynn was not so happy when I came on the scene with Haley. The two of them had been close and exclusive pals for her whole life. We had a rocky beginning to our relationship. She saw no reason to please or even put up with me. Obedience was out of the question. We came eventually to a grudging mutual respect when I started taking her squirrel hunting, (one of her favorite things). I would shoot a squirrel and she would scarf it down whole with only a minimum of crunching of the heads. I mean, you got to admire that kind of gusto.
Shadow was the largest and ruggedest poodle I have ever seen. She exhibbited absolutely none of the delicate and arrogant airs of the typical french poodle. She was known for somewhat rude table manners, frequently passing gas and belching for company. Maybe it was her strong english or German hunting parentage. Our relationship eventually moved on to genuine afection, and I will miss her dearly too.
If not, no worries. We'll get you set up with whatever you need to make it work.
. Had another idea too. Think anyone would donate a set of stencils for the other side of the blade (opposite maker's mark side) to designate these as to their purpose? I don't have anything in particular in mind, but it IS a special project for special people, in memory of some very special beasties, and it might be cool to commemorate them that way. Just a thought.
