Speck! Pond

Sponsored by Terry and Connie Eddy

Where do I even start with Speck!?

Speck! as a puppy always seemed to be wired differently than the rest of his siblings. Based on the way he stared at me, I knew if I coddled him a little too much I’d have another no-boundaries-respected mama’s boy like Jumbotron. It was really hard to not pick him up all the time when at the start of puppy walks he would be glued to my side, staring up at me. Speck! earned the nickname ‘the emotionbot’ from his clear-sighted and clear-hearted emotional communication skills. Speck! is an old soul.

As he grew, I would come back from training at dog camp and slowly watch him turn into this creature from another plant: large, puffy, and this big padding-around paws. He earned the nickname ‘mini-Bobo’ as his coloring looks so much like his uncle Boris, the main lead dog for Denis and now retired on his couch. For some reason I kept expecting Speck! to become a sleek leggy thing like his half brothers or his dad, and when spring came I was faced with this malamute-looking thing. The largest of the puppies, Speck was already wearing an adult-sized harness at 9 months old, and thankfully seems to have stopped growing in size as various body parts slowly catch up with each other. While his coloring and his smile are all his mom, his personality and mannerisms are all his dad: intelligent, connected, and aloof.

Now that he’s a yearling, I’ve realized that despite my best efforts, I have turned him into a mama’s boy, where he expects just a little bit more, expects to go in the house, and expects to go with me on walks. Most of the time, when I choose dogs for hikes I’m listening to what they need, who needs an adventure and who needs some one on one time. When I choose Speck!, it’s usually entirely for me. When my heart was heavy and tired this pandemic spring, it was often Speck! who came inside for a night or two or went on aimless short easy walks. Speck! is a companion spirit.

As the ‘emotionbot’, Speck! is both highly emotionally intelligent, able to pick up on the difference between me walking outside in general and me walking outside to load up into the truck and leave. He also is literally a sponge, soaking up and absorbing and cleaning up the energy around him.

For a decade, I worked in and managed a backcountry program that staffed remote campsites with caretakers. The sites stretched along the Appalachian Trail from Kinsman Notch all the way to Grafton Notch in Maine. At the northern end, in the Mahoosuc Range, is Speck! Pond, a stunningly beautiful glacial lake pooling at the base of Old Speck Mtn. At some point, in the 1990s, there was a caretaker that decided that Speck! was the most beautiful place in the world, and deserving of an exclamation point, placing it on his finance sheets, reports, and more. It stuck, probably because, well, it really is a beautiful place. 

Born: 6/24/2019

Fanzine x Hawkeye (Mahoosucs litter)