R.i.p. Ranger
It could have been a great day. We had some good trainings on Friday and yesterday, all dogs were so happy. Today it is Sunday, in the morning it was crispy cold and sunshine was promised. But everything went different than expected.
Coming with the morning soup for the dogs Ranger was not waiting on the dog house. But that was not so special, sometimes he waited in the dog house until I reached his cage. Anyway, I had a strange feeling and I knew there must be something wrong when he didn’t came to the cage door when I was opening it…
When I checked the dog house he was already gone, absolutely unexpected.
The following text is my tribute to my “once-in-a-lifetime” dog
R.i.p. Ranger – my best friend, my motivation, my everything 💔😰💔 You left this world absolutely unexpected and much too early but you will stay in my heart forever. The happiest dog I ever met, unstoppable in front of the sled. Never tired, not even after a race. In your head you stayed a puppy. And, oh my god, how will I miss this crazy jumping and barking at the start or in every break. And who will help me cleaning the buckets after feeding? My world will not be the same without you but I know when I am driving under the stars you are watching me. Ranger, I love you ❤️
There are so many more stories to tell about Ranger. When I started working with sleddogs in 2014 he was two years old and it was his first year in the race team in Äkäskero. During the season he decided that I will be his human and it was not difficult to convince me about that. Ranger was a so happy dog, it’s not possible to be angry when he smiles at you. No matter if he is chewing on the new built dog house, “escaping” from the cage to lick out the food buckets, jumping and barking like crazy on the line before you start training… he is just my dog. During the years in Äkäskero he developed to one of the best race dogs in the team, never tired and – I have to repeat – always happy. Even after a race he was coming home and running around Gizmo like crazy just to play around. He learned from Gizmo to sleep on the sofa and both together waited patiently until food was ready… oh wait – that changed later on 😉
2017 we moved to Emil and Barbara to Norway and Ranger was not only the hero on the trampoline he also got the possibility to race with me. And, of course, he did great. We had so many great moments together with the other race dogs and on tours with Gizmo.
2018 we had been with Mats in Kiruna, more great experience for all of us. 2019 we spend almost a year in Germany, of course Ranger and Gizmo joined us. And you can’t imagine how many funny things they did together when you left them home alone or didn’t look at them for a while. From putting flour over the whole kitchen floor over getting the frying pan from the oven in perfect team work to eating to full boxes of dry food in probably under five minutes. Ranger was even suspected to had become a chicken hunter, mmh, should we believe this??? 🤣🙈
2020 we came back to Sweden, and in summer we found our place to stay and build up our own small sled dog kennel. Ranger was a big part of that, if not to say the most important. He will stay in our hearts and a little bit of his happy and crazy attitude lives on in his puppies.
Thank you, Ranger, for our life together. The moments we had will be never forgotten.
