date
uncertain. The name Tyche was the Greek goddess of luck. Tyche had a dog run
with his name on the gate. In his lifetime he became a loyal and
responsible dog. Tyche was a great hiking dog and accompanied me on day hikes and overnight
backpacks, places ranging from Eastman Lake to Hutchison Meadows in the John Muir
Wilderness Area.We had many adventures on our hikes. Once, we got caught in a thunderstorm in Piute Canyon and nearly got soaked to our skin. Another time, we came upon a mama bear with her cubs. Needless to say I did an about-face and walked away - quickly. Tyche did exactly the right thing: walked away in another direction, to join me later; did not bark at the bear, even when one of her cubs followed him for a bit.
Why, come to
think of it, Tyche was a miracle dog! He got hit by
a truck once, on a jeep trail,
and though he got up and walked away from it he soon after disappeared into the
woods where I couldn't find him. Fearing internal injuries, I had to assume
he had gone to a private place to die. But then a week later - that's right,
a week later, he showed up in my driveway under my truck. Still
dont know where he was that week. I just thanked God he was still with me.
Tyche lived nearly four years after that episode, and we went on many hikes and even two "pilgrimages" of a sort, efforts to traverse the Sierra Nevada range from one side to the other. In between he guarded our house as best he could from his dog run and made many friends, dog and human. But the Grim Reaper came to claim his harvest. In late February '08, he got sick and, before the vet could determine what exactly he had, he died. He is buried in a plot near one of the trails that he hiked with me and loved so well. A native granite rock is his headstone.
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