The Story Of Trout

Life lessons from a Canadian adventure dog.

- Kelsy Gibos

Dogs are the best. There is always an abundance of affection (and dog hair), enthusiasm, loyalty, and unassuming, never-ending and ever-enduring love when we invite these beasts into our homes and our beds. There’s a trade-off, though: We know when we bring their fuzzy little faces into our lives that inevitably we will outlive them. It is such an unfairness in life that they simply do not live as long as we do. At least we can take comfort in the fact that they never take a single moment for granted, which is important when you think they have to cram the equivalent of seven years’ worth of living into a single calendar year.

This is a story about how much one can cram into every single moment of a dog’s life. This dog was my dog Trout, an adventure mongrel whose story I feel I need to share as a reminder to live every single moment, as you just never know when it might be your last.

My husband Travis and I adopted Trout and her brother Twigs in March 2011 after they were dumped at a pound near Sydney, Australia. They were about four months old, riddled with fleas and worms, and left to their own fate with the animal control system.