Jansim Blue Collar Man

"Blue"

12 May 2022 - 07 November 2023

Owned, loved and missed beyond measure by Tony and Beth

Never during my lifetime did I expect to be creating this tribute!!
There are no words that can adequately sum up the sudden and devastating loss of a beloved friend in the prime of youth.
It is a gut punch that defies recovery.
What appeared to be a simple dietary overindulgence, which received veterinary intevention in a very timely manner, hid a sinister and deadly intruder. This lead to Blue passing away in in his sleep, cradled in Tony's arms, in the early hours of the 7th November at the tender age of 18 months.
Our hearts go out to Tony and Beth who did everything right and had no suspicion of, or any way of predicting, this awful outcome.
Pam

For those of you who never had the chance to meet Blue, the Tribute below will introduce you to this special boy. And for those who were priveleged to cross paths with him during his far too short spell on this earth, it will be a reminder of all that is missed.

His smile.

Those teeth! Any shark or crocodile would have been envious!

Little did we know when Jansim Blue Collar Man (named after the Styx song Blue Collar Man) came to live with us how much fun and how much sorrow would become part of our lives. It all began with Beth heading to Kingston to pick him up, and trying to come up with a name that fit him. Chris was throwing out so many options, but when he said Paul Bunyan, thinking of our forestry roots, Paul's companion Blue, the ox struck home, and so Blue it was.

He was a good boy on the flight home, until the missed flight out of Calgary, and after almost 24 hours in the sherpa bag, he made sure he would never endure that again by chewing a gaping hole through the side. Beth was worried they wouldn't allow her on the last flight given the bag was barely able to hold the little vampire . . . as she looked down those pearly whites were gnawing and gnashing, and even accidentally nipping her leg! The two of them landed in Grande Prairie at midnight, and then an hours long drive to Dawson Creek was enough to make sure neither of them wanted to suffer that nonsense again!

We were being very careful with Blue; parvovirus is very prevalent here, and we wanted to take no chances with him, and so not much camping for us for the better part of the summer. When we finally got him vaccinated we went to Moonshine (but kept him off of the ground) and he was so confused. He wasn't sure about peeing on the mat, and he held on so much that when Tony went to pick him up after supper he gushed all over Tony. Tony always told Blue he owed him one!

Blue and Loki were inseparable friends . . . she would grab a babble ball and scruff a bed while tossing it about and Blue would run around with a toy in his mouth, barking at her and trying to get her attention. He loved dashing under the bed and hiding, only to peek out to see if we were looking for him and barking. He was crazy!

He loved to be on our laps or within reach at all time. He insisted on climbing onto us and on us, stomping on certain parts of the anatomy that don't like being stomped on! At night he loved to curl up beside us, but woe-betide you on your return from the washroom. He would sprawl out exactly where you were sleeping and would not budge! We spent so much time scooping him and moving him over, and to this day going to the washroom is a reminder of his happy-go-lucky attitude.

Showing him in Missouri was such a blessing in so many ways. So many of the Jansim gang got to know our little fool, and he got to meet and play with his brother Spike and uncle Rupert. With Blue being our first blue and tan BT, we had no idea how to manage his coat . . . and we always remembered Pam saying she can take hair off, but can't put it back on, and so we had arrived with a very scruffy pup. But then Pam and Shawna took that scruffy pup and made him look absolutely gorgeous, unfortunately with the result of Blue now LOATHING the grooming table. He buried his head in Beth's chest when the judge tried to go over him, so we had our work cut out for us. Thankfully the Canadian show in Calgary started with a Sweepstakes judge who made it her mission to make him comfortable. Tons of treats later, and he was just as good on the table as the floor . . . he wasn't as confident as Gremlin, but he definitely had the right stride and showed like a champ!

Camping at Moonshine was the best though; he and Tony walked and walked and walked, and he grew to LOVE hunting for grouse. As fewer were in the campground, a flock of roughly 13 grouse meandered through, and Blue got to recognize the chirps and the smell, and we knew he'd be an excellent hunter. While walking along the dyke with Loki and Blue on flexis, Blue decided to start walking into the brush on our left. Initially, we thought that he was starting to lose his marbles since Loki had not reacted to anything. Boy, were we ever wrong when all of a sudden we noticed a grouse walking away from him! Yes, he had found and flushed his first grouse all by himself and he was a proud guy. Over the next several weekends camping he found and watched many, many, more grouse and he would really get excited; he even looked great in a video that Tony took of him as a grouse walked towards us as Blue got more and more excited. Thankfully the grouse, walked off the trail before poor Blue had a heart attack from that one and several others that were beyond his flexi!

Although he was barely a year old at that time, he was so good at watching Loki's reaction to grouse that he picked it up so quickly. It was amazing to watch his reaction and admire his big beautiful smile. He was so good and showed such amazing potential that Tony was thinking of taking him out grouse hunting in 2024. Unfortunately, for both of them, it wasn't meant to happen.

During another camping trip we saw a rabbit while we were out walking and Blue really wanted to run to the little rabbit. As usual he was on a flexi so he had to sit, stare, and possibly salivate while we watched the rabbit eat grass for several minutes.

He really started to come into his own when we were able to sign him up for obedience. He wasn't afraid to bark at dogs that barked at him when out on walks. There was a lovely Great Dane he kept meeting and for the longest time he didn't know what to do with the giant dog, but with some patience they came to be friends. Not until Blue barked at him like he was the size of the Dane! But obedience class let him know that not all dogs are obnoxious, and he was able to gain confidence. On his graduation day Beth had to leave him at one end of the arena and go to the other end, turn around and call him, and as he sprinted toward her it was his smile with those pearly whites that let us know he was happy.

Although we frequently called him Big Blue, Tony started to call him "Gros Bleu", the French translation for it. However, Tony really emphasized the words so much that Blue would get so excited and smile whenever he heard the words. It was so great to watch and admire his reaction to those two little words.

To say that we've cried our weight in tears would be an understatement. We miss not only his crazy antics but the little things. His whiskers were so long and thick they constantly poked us. When we opened the door he'd peek out through the bars of the crate and wiggle and jiggle so much he'd knock off anything we had set on top of it. Dashing under the bed and playing hide and seek. His joy at being asked to go for a walk, and his love of snuggling and cuddling. And he was an immovable object in bed; whenever one of us would get up to go to the washroom, he would sprawl out right where you needed to lie down, and so you had to scoop him up and move him over. Even now, going to the washroom at night just isn't the same.

The expression "here for a good time, not a long time" is all that comes to mind now. We had such hope for years to come with Blue, but will have to accept that it simply wasn't to be. And we know that Gizmo and Gremlin are keeping him busy at the bridge hunting for grouse, until we can all be together again.

As a working dog while admiring grouse, Blue definitely was a "Blue Collar Man"!