Crew Member #2 - Mopar 3/20/2001 - 6/3/2011

When I met my husband Greg, he was not much of a dog lover.  He never really had one growing up, and he didn't understand the bond between dog and owner, until he met Raja.  Raja had never met a person who didn't love him.  After a few months he had won my husband over and we discussed a second dog.

You see, I had a plan and the plan was to space the dogs 5 years apart.  The logic was that we would eventually have 3 dogs and by spacing them 5 years apart the older dog could age in peace and the middle dog could play with the new puppy.  We discussed what kind of puppy we wanted and my husband had his mind set on a White Labrador.  So I found a photo online and printed it to keep on our fridge.  In May 2001, I was looking through the paper and found an ad for exactly what we wanted.  We drove an hour and a half to see the 11 puppies, and Greg picked the puppy he wanted.

Being a car guy, he wanted a car related name and named the white bundle Mopar.  We brought him home at 6 weeks, which as I have gotten older and wiser realize was way too soon.  He'd cry at night, and I would sleep on the floor with my finger in the crate to quiet him down.  He barked once as a puppy and it was so deep, I think he scared himself and he rarely barked unless he was sleeping.  As he got older he became Greg’s dog.

I know that pawrents aren't supposed to compare their children, but sometimes you can't help it.  With Raja if he did something wrong, he hung his head in shame.  With Mopar he could be doing the wrong thing in front of you and wag his tail as if everything was fine.  He was one of the most loving dogs and always seemed to smile.  He and Raja became best friends and you could always find them hanging out together.

As Mopar got older we had to take him in a couple times when he was holding up his left rear leg and we were told his Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL) was loose.  In late 2009 he was running in our backyard when he tore his right one too.  Finances were tight after radiation for Raja so in January 2010 we chose to only have one traditionally repaired where a leader line is woven in a figure-eight pattern through the joint beginning at the outer aspect of the femur to the tibial crest.

We made it through the 12 week recovery period and thought we were in the clear.  In July 2010, he had a bump starting on his back.  We hoped it was a fatty tumor but of course that would not be the case.  So back to the hospital to have the cancerous tumor removed. We didn’t want to put him through radiation so we moved on hoping for the best.  On December 31^st 2010, to end out a rather horrible year, we took Mopar in because he was limping.  We thought that since it was in the leg that had surgery, that the leader line degraded.  Once again we heard the words bone cancer.  We eventually decided to have his leg amputated.  He had his 10th Birthday in March and he walked with us in the Canine Cancer Walk helping us raise $1485 for the cause in May.  A month later, he had tumors growing again, including ones in his eyes.  On June 3rd, we decided it was time to help him to the Rainbow Bridge where his brother Raja was patiently waiting to be reunited.  His urn matches Raja, and are on opposite sides of the dining room facing each other.

Come back tomorrow to meet Doggie #3 - a quirky Rottweiler/Australian Shepherd mix named Samson