Hi I'm Koda! Well, actually my real name is Lakota ... but all my friends call me Koda. I have been a faithful GeoDog for about two years, since my human dad got into the activity. I've seen some neat places and enjoyed the chance to get out and about. Make no bones about it ... I'm no spring chicken. There's some age on these four paws, but I've never let that get to me. Please help me travel the world from cache to cache so that I can continue sniffing out these awesome locations!
I was born in December 2003. Not too much is known about my early life. According to the folks at the Westmoreland County Animal Shelter, I was originally named Boris and lived in an apartment complex. My owner got frustrated with my running through the apartment (I mean, seriously? Who gets a Siberian Husky when they live in an apartment???). Guess I was too much for them to handle and I was surrenderred to the shelter ... for the first time.
Another owner adopted me from the shelter. They gave it a good try, but a similar end to the story took place, and I was back in the shelter for the second time. At that point, I really felt broken. Was I ever going to find a forever home? The folks at the shelter advertised me on PetFinder.com ... which is where my human dad discovered my dire situation.
When my soon-to-be dad showed up, with my soon-to-be step-brother Denali, I was underweight, tired, and one week away from being put down. While that fact certainly makes the shelter sound horrible ... I don't blame them. They are a rural shelter with limited resources. I thank my lucky stars they cared enough to make a final attempt to find me a forever home. Seeing the true jewel that existed inside the rough that day, my dad and step-brother quickly knew that I was special. They put me in the truck and made the trip back to Williamsburg, where I was going to get a new chance at life.
When I got home, my dad had me checked out by a vet (every thing turned out great) and started me on a diet to get some weight back on my bones. Of course my step-brother Denali loved me (well, Denali is quite a card ... I think he loved messing and teasing me more than anything). I also met my step-sister Triana! She was great and welcomed me to the husky pack. I had a little stretch of separation anxiety for the first couple weeks when my dad left for work. However, given my past ... could you blame me? My brother and sister helped me get through that and I eventually knew that I was here to stay! After all, my dad kept saying to others what an amazing husky I was ... and always described me with words like: calm, loving, sweet, smart, patient, and a bunch of others I forgot.
My brother Denali was trained to pull. He pulled my dad on a specially designed "sulky," as well as on roller blades using a regular pull-harness. He knew his directional commands very well and I loved being hooked up along side him so that I could pull too! He was a great lead dog and I had a ball running with him wearing our cute "booties" so that our paws were not scratched on the concrete.
In the summer of 2014, my dad discovered geocaching. What a great discovery that was, because it provided so many adventures for us. While Denali was a truly remarkable "pulling dog," he was not too good at being a "walking dog." Being bigger than me and fairly high-strung, dad never really took Denali on too many geocaching adventures. However, I, on the other hand, loved to just hop on up in the front seat of the truck and travel to whereever we were headed. I didn't care where ... these were special moments for me ... being able to spend quality time with my dad.
As time past, my once young, and virtually invincible, body kept slowing down on me. My spirit always remained the same. Yet, sometimes I found out that what I had in mind to do ... my body just couldn't keep up. This made for some frustrating (but still comical) incidents! I'll never forget the geocaching adventure we went on where both me and my dad realized that I would have to start dialing it back. We grabbed the FTFs on three caches that day (GC5YN7Z, GC63G9P, and GC65709) out in Grandview. Boy oh boy was that a long walk! I couldn't quite keep up with my dad and he had to keep stopping and letting me rest. I was 11(soon to be 12), and it was starting to show. Man! It just sucks getting old!
From that point on, my dad and I still continued to enjoy geocaching together. However, I started to leave those caches with the higher T ratings to my dad, while I accompanied him on the more level ground caches and P-N-Gs. In November 2015, we grabbed a memorable FTF on Carters Wharf (GC666FZ). This cache was not far from where I had been rescued back in December 2004 in Westmoreland County.
Then there was Cross Country Skinny Dipping in Sandy Bottom (GC32ECZ). While we were not the FTF on this one, it was a special cache, for me, for a different reason. This was the last geocache that I walked to with my dad. For those of you with good legs, that walk from the parking lot is just a hop, skip, and a jump. But this was a challenge for me. We did it though! I was 13 years old ... but I was still alive and kicking! Well ... maybe not much "kicking" ... but certainly trying!
See, I had started developing degenerative myelopathy. This is a frustrating disease that slowy starts attacking the nerves in the spines of older dogs like me. As it progressed, I continually lost the ability to use my hind legs. This was a horrible situation to be in ... basically going from four legs to two. However, my dad was always there for me. He supported me and carried me when I needed it. And though my condition sure did suck ... it was comforting to know that my dad was fully committed to caring for me and knew that my love for him remained just a strong as when I was a young, adventuresome pup! The last cache run we went on together was to Beautiful King William County 5 (GC6ZXF1). We were the FTF! Well ... I guess he was. I decided to stay in the car, but that didn't matter to me. I just loved taking these impromptu cache runs with him.
That final cache run was in February 2017. Quite some time has past since then. In July, my step-brother Denali lost his battle with time ... and it was catching up to me as well. On my final day here on Earth, I was really bad off. However, even in my horrible state ... I let my dad know of my appeciation for his loving care as often as I could. Just after midnight, on the morning of September 21, my spirit parted ways with my broken down, debilitated body, to forever run free. And the best part of all ...my dad was right there by my side until the very end.
Please help me continue my journey to beautiful vistas, challenging terrain, and mind-numbing puzzles. Thank you so much for taking loving care of me!