Chapter 1
The mill
Sparky is a puppy mill rescue. On August 23, 2008, a team of rescuers and the sheriff’s department raided a huge, unlicensed breeding operation in the woods near Parkersburg, West Virginia. It took three days to get the dogs out. It was nearly a thousand small dogs in cages, and Sparky was one of them. Only four people were “caring” for all those dogs. Many were housed outside, exposed to the elements, or indoors in filth.
He came to me through Lucky Star Cavalier Rescue and my dear friend Molly, who was fostering him. I know I was lucky to have a friend in the rescue world. Molly has passed away too, but she really was his guardian angel.
Like all Cavaliers, Sparky and Lucky were the sweetest dogs. Lucky wasn’t competitive. He embraced Sparky from the day they met. On the day I met Sparky, he fell asleep on my lap with Lucky, and I think he knew he had found his person.
Chapter 2
Home
Sparky was young when he was rescued, and he was a Cavalier, which is one of the sweetest and most resilient dogs in the world. So he wasn’t shy. He just wanted to be loved.
In the mill he had been out in the elements and he was underfed, but it never seemed like he had been hurt by people, so he wasn’t afraid of them. He was super affectionate, like a dog who had never had any. I remember how happy and loving he was. He slept so soundly, and at night he made little barks in his sleep. I always wondered what he was dreaming about.
His nickname was Doodle. He was a food guy from day one. His birthday cakes were a big deal, including the first homemade one in 2018, which he declared a hit.
Chapter 3
The dynamic duo
Sparky and my other Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Lucky, became best friends right away. I called them the dynamic duo. Lucky was the leader when he was alive, and Sparky was happy in his shadow.
Lucky passed away in November 2015, and Sparky was the little one who stayed. I thought Sparky would miss Lucky so much, but he really blossomed and came into his own when Lucky left us.
Chapter 4
His adventures
Sparky loved three things more than anything: dinner, a car ride, and the beach. After a walk he would plant himself by the car and refuse to go inside. He wanted one more ride.
These adventures are mostly the years after Lucky. We walked the Hudson River with the New York skyline behind us, drove to Asbury Park for the beach, and went to parks and Cavalier get-togethers like Cavapalooza to see his Cavalier friends. There were Santa photos, a fall trip to Vermont, and lots of dog-friendly festivals. He loved to explore the beach and pose for photos.
The beach
Christmas at the beach
Calendar dogs
Out and about
Chapter 5
His eyes
When Sparky was about ten and a half, I noticed him walking into things. Our regular vet didn’t see anything, but suggested an eye doctor if it continued. It did, and in December 2017 we found out he had PRA. The vet said he had about one to three years until he was totally blind.
Except for his eyes, he was healthy for a Cavalier his age. Unlike most Cavaliers, Sparky never got congestive heart failure. Even at 13½, he didn’t have a heart murmur.
To make it easier on him, I joined a group for owners of blind dogs. We didn’t move the furniture, and we tried a few other things, but he had lived in the house so long that he had learned to navigate it. He still bumped into a chair now and then, but he was pretty good at it.
He used to climb the steps onto my bed in the afternoon, or at 9 at night, and sit there and bark, trying to herd me to bed. Once he was blind, he would bark from the bed like Lassie was in the well, so I would come and bring him down, because he didn’t feel comfortable coming down on his own. I stopped letting him on the bed because I was afraid he’d fall. He got a very comfy memory foam bed at the foot of mine, where he could be near me and safe.
He kept his routines, and I learned to keep them going for him.
Chapter 6
The slow goodbye
In the fall of 2020 Sparky was diagnosed with lymphoma. He started chemo, and for a while he had a little more pep in his step. It was during Covid, so I was working from home and could be there for all of it: the medicine and the vet visits. I had the flexibility to take him to the oncologist, though I never got to meet the oncologist in person because of how visits had to happen back then.
I’m so grateful for that time. He slept on the sofa beside me while I was on conference calls, and we did as many outdoor adventures as we could, mostly along the Hudson River Walkway, his favorite. I always look back at that bonus time with Sparky as the silver lining of a horrible pandemic. I felt blessed to be home with him while we said our slow goodbye.
Near the end his muscles got weaker, and he would get stuck under the furniture. He’d bark to let me know, and I’d come and rescue him.
Near the end he didn’t always want to eat, so I tried everything: rice, meatballs, an egg, a carrot, warm bone broth. And one day he wanted to go for a ride, like always. So we took an imaginary one. I put him in the car, turned on the engine, and sat there with him listening to the radio.
Sparky passed on March 25, 2021. This is what I wrote that week:
“I had to say my final goodbye to my dog Sparky on Thursday. My heart is shattered and Sparky is now at rainbow bridge with his brother, Lucky, who passed away in 2015.”
Chapter 7
Why the notebook
Looking after Sparky meant a lot of little things to keep track of. I have dogs now too, and there is always something. Did he get his medicine? Did he get a walk? Did he do number two? It’s harder when you share the care with someone else.
When I had to work in an office, I had a dog walker for a while. On some days there was no note at all, and I wondered if she had even been to my house. She would call me afterward with a story about how she “forgot” to leave one.
Then I found a Yelp review about her from another family who had set up a camera. She came in, wrote a note, and left without walking their dogs. I realized she had probably only ever come to pick up the check I left, and maybe never walked mine at all.
It matters who you give your keys to, and who you trust with your dog. Sparky’s Notebook is a way for pet parents to have that confidence, and for the walker and the pet parent to be on the same page.
If you’re walking a dog through an illness yourself, I’m so sorry. You’re doing a good thing.