Katie Wanders : An Ode to Olive

In 2011, I applied to several different rescues with the hopes of adopting my first dog. I was finally out of school, out of my parent's house, and into my first rental in the quiet little town of Essex, Connecticut. It was the first real time in my life where I could get my own dog and I convinced my boyfriend at the time that a puppy was a great idea for our early 20 somethings lives together. I didn’t have the normal prerequisites rescues often require like a fenced in yard, or big dog experience. What I did have was a passion to rescue, and a marathon training plan with an open spot for a training partner.

I applied to cute bouncy little puppies all throughout the state, a white shepherd mix, and countless others. Each time, I was met with the same answer - no fence, I was only renting, and there were better applicants ahead of me (especially for the puppies). While their reasons were completely valid, and the reason so many dogs are returned, I was frustrated and knew I would have to get a little creative if I wanted to adopt.

It was 2009 and Facebook Marketplace didn’t exist yet. Craigslist was the local web yard sale for everything from used cars to kid’s toys for sale. Craigslist is also a dangerous place for rehoming dogs as there is often little to no vetting process. It is where “free dogs” find themselves being rehoused into a dog fighting ring, or some other awful situation.

Not for Olive. It was there on Craiglist that I saw an ad for a “Lab Mix Puppy”. I can still remember the photo like it was yesterday, a little black lab puppy with long black ears, laying down resting her head on a floral print chair.

I reached out to the woman who listed her, and we planned to meet at Starbucks so I could meet the little black dog someone called Olive. Thatcher and I got in the car and made the hour drive down I-95 to Fairfield, Connecticut where we saw a woman sitting at one of the outdoor patio tables with a little black dog. This woman did better than most and vetted us through emails and meeting in person before inviting us back to her house to pick up Olive’s supplies. She had a dog bed and chew toys and a little bag of paperwork that she came with. The story was a little blurry and confusing but what seemed to have happened was Olive was adopted from a rescue down south by a couple in Fairfield. We don’t know her history, if she was abandoned as a puppy, found as a stray, or born in a shelter. What we do know is that she lived here in Connecticut for a few months before being abandoned by her New England owners. The woman I met had Olive for a little bit but this wild black lab puppy with wild energy was a little much for her situation and she was looking for a new home.

You know how the saying goes, the rest is history. We drove back home with this black lab puppy, completely unaware how much this dog would change our lives, for better, and for worse. Quite quickly, she started pooping out parasites, had absolutely zero leash training or walking skills, was not potty trained, and had some of the most severe separation anxiety I have ever seen in a dog - to this day. From the second she entered our farmhouse rental in Essex, she never left my side. She followed us from room to room and if put in a crate wrecked HAVOC on the metal and the flooring underneath it.

It was pretty clear from day 1 that this dog had previously likely spent a lot of time locked in a crate, and had been passed around a few times in her short life, and because of that (and who knows what other factors) would not tolerate being left alone in a house in any capacity for any period of time. She was happy to be your co-pilot in the car, your partner on a run, to lay next to the dining table at an outdoor restaurant, or just about any other activity you could think of. As long as she was with someone with a pulse, she was a wonderful dog. She never met a person she didn’t love, and tolerated every and any dog she ever met, eventually having a pack of friends and cousins, and her own “brother” one day far down our path.

The first year with Olive was a lesson in patience, caring, and perseverance. Her anxiety was so crippling that within the first month, she had jumped out of a second story window and stopped in at the neighbor’s house to see what was for dinner. Screens were never a barrier and if you by chance left your window open on a nice summer day, you would find Olive outside by your side within a matter of minutes, a trashed screen laying on the floor outside the house. She hated fireworks, gunshots, and thunder drove her absolutely mad. If the thunder started rumbling, she immediately tried to find a way to escape whatever shelter she was in, one night figuring out how to open the windows and escape in the middle of the night.

I quickly became very good at a few important things: 1) replacing window and door screens and 2) finding every single dog-friendly restaurant and activity within a 50-mile radius. I even found a job with a BYOD policy and Olive joined me at the office every single day.

There were so many days where her anxiety brought me to tears and I had to get really creative on how I lived my life. In return, Olive showed me what unconditional love looks like and just how much energy one little furry body could hold. I learned to bike with her on a leash as a quick way to get bursts of energy out. A 5k was child’s play for her and guaranteed me one hour of peace before she demanded her next activity. As she got a little older and was able to run further, she became my marathon training buddy, the amazing athlete that ran 15 miles with me one day like it was nothing.

Olive and I spent hours upon hours hiking through the woods, off-leash and running around, the only way to get has as much exercise as possible. Olive loved nothing more than being on a trail with her humans, the smell of deer in the air and adventure ahead. We quickly discovered she was a lab hound mix and learned to distinguish her “deer yelp” that meant Olive found herself one of New England’s most popular woodland companions and her recall was officially over. She was the ultimate adventure dog, happy to mountain bike in the desert, backpack through the White Mountains, and nap under the table at the local brewery.

We lived our lives in the new normal of the two of us and Olive, a third wheel everywhere we went. By the end of her life, she had lived in six different towns or cities with me, one 2,200 miles away. She had been to more National Parks than most people, and spent her years traveling the country. She spent her summers vacationing on Block Island, swimming in the Atlantic, and when we moved out west, experienced the cold water of the Pacific under the Golden Gate Bridge. She climbed rugged peaks in Utah, spent hours at the barn around the horses, and lived a life a dog could only dream about.

Our adventures together were extraordinary and it's joyful and tearful to look back on all of the amazing places we visited together but besides the adventures, she was there with me during my brightest and darkest days. There is something so special about a dog who sees you through every big stage of your life. Olive was there when Thatcher and I’s relationship was new. She was there when he moved to Salt Lake and I moved to Chester, living along for the first time. She was there when we spent that year alone and she was there when I packed up my life into a U-Haul and moved out west. She was there when we moved back, and she was there when I bought my first home and spent my first Christmas morning alone. She was there on every first date (often sitting in the car parked outside the restaurant) and she was there the day I met my husband. She was there at our engagement, a willing witness at my wedding, was there when the first pregnancy test said “positive” and was waiting at the door when we brought our first baby home from the hospital. She was there for the second pregnancy test, the second time we brought a baby home, and for their first birthdays. She was there every Christmas morning, cowered in a room with me every Fourth of July, and saw me through so many highs. She comforted me through so many lows and was my constant companion through it all. She welcomed Adam’s dog into our life, was the ever-patient and perfect companion to our two kids, and was by my side in almost every moment inbetween.

If you knew me, you knew Olive, as her separation anxiety meant she was an ever present shadow in my everyday life. As the years went by, her black coat turned to gray and she slowed down a bit. She could no longer keep up with the mountain bikes and slowed down on our runs when the temperatures started to climb. Her slow down came at the perfect time as we started our family and we were all happy to exchange our 30-mile backpacking trips for walks around the neighborhood or a 2-mile hike with the kids in their packs. Watching your dog age is a priveledge and as the years went by, I knew I would have to one day say goodbye to the dog that had been the most special addition to my life.

In the summer of 2024, our other dog Marshal (Adam's dog before we met) who was a 9 year old terrier, suddenly passed due to lung cancer. We never thought this 13-year old lab would outlive the rambunctious terrier and it was a true shock to our systems. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. We knew we would lose Olive in the near(ish) future, and that we would have Marshal to keep us busy and help heal out broken hearts. Instead, Marshal was gone and Olive started to go downhill. Her anxiety was starting to increase and she started to show signs of doggie dementia. The last few weeks, she would wake up in the middle of the night in a complete panic, shaking in fear and unable to settle for hours. She even started to panic in the car, her once safe haven where she spent many hours parked in a lot where I ran in for groceries, stopped to see a friend, or grab dinner. It was clear to us that Olive’s quality of life was decreasing rapidly and we owed her the gift of leaving this life with us by her side as a happy dog before things really went downhill. I promised her I would never let her suffer and to make sure her last day was a great one.

Losing Marshal was hard and there are still days where I feel rocked to my core. He deserved more time and his loss was so quick and such a shock. Olive’s loss was different. Olive was over 13 years old, a ripe old age for a large lab/hound mix, especially one who had lived such a profound life. As someone once described it, the universe owed her nothing. What I did owe her was a peaceful passing, the last gift of honor and a lack of suffering.

On her last day, we went for a walk and spent some time outside, soaking in the sunshine. We went out to breakfast and watched her enjoy a plate of crispy bacon. It was beautiful and heart wrenching and the pain comes back as fresh as the day that I said goodbye to my dogs.

For weeks I still moved the chocolate out of dog's reach. I constantly checked the back seat to make sure I haven’t left her in the car. I grabbed a stray grape off the floor with lightning speed and waited for a dog that never comes to clean dropped food or highchair crumbs. I heard phantom barking and the sound of dog nailes on a hard wood floor.

Losing her felt like losing a limb and in so many ways, it was a chapter of my life that had officially closed. Thatcher and I got Olive together, and we loved her dearly. We molded our lives to fit around her needs and she loved us fiercely in return. Even after we broke up we would take turns spending time with her, and I even went as far as to take her out to Block Island to spent her favorite week of the year with Thatcher and his family.

That beautiful and transformative chapter of my life closed and my constant companion through life's biggest moments was gone. I quickly realized our next dog will be the only dog my kids remember and that's hard too. It's been two years since we lost Olive and I can still feel her silky ears, I can still hear her grunts and daydream of all our wild adventures.

Olive was so incredibly special and having a fearful dog like Otto now, truly puts into perspective just how loving and trusting Olive was. Olive was the Craigslist puppy no one wanted and I don't know if she would have lasted in anyone's life but mine. If you knew me, you knew Olive and I will spend the rest of my life thankful to have her love for 13 years.

My favorite memories

Olive camping. This girl LOVED to sleep in a tent. As the night winded down and the campfire lingered, she would walk over to the tent and claw to go inside. For a dog who was afraid of crates, she loved sleeping in a tiny tent, as long as it was with us.

Our longest run - 15 miles. Olive had a level of energy that was off the charts. A 3 mile run was a warm up and after a 30 minute nap, like it never happened. She ran a lot of my marathon training miles with me and I slowly worked her up to 10 miles. On the day I had to run 15, I ran her ten and tied her up at the track while I finished the last five. She went ballistic so instead, she joined me for the last 5.

Backpacking - Olive had a saddle bag pack that she used for longer hikes or overnight backpacking trips. You could tell she had a sense of purpose when she wore it. I took her on two backpacking trips. One being a 20+ mile two day trip. She did fantastic and somehow managed to climb like a mountain goat up the White Mountain terrains while wearing a pack.

Getting lost in the woods - Olive was good off leash and left all the critters alone EXCEPT for deer. She tended to hike just a little ahead and she has a specific yelp she made when she found a deer. When I heard this yelp I knew we were in trouble and I lost her for HOURS one day in a preserve in Lyme. I spent the day crying in the woods, calling her name and asking every hiker I saw of which none had seen her. It was getting late and I left to go grab bacon for a bacon burn. My parents went to the trailhead and saw her sitting there with my boyfriend's dad's dog who followed her off on the scent.

How she could get comfortable anywhere- Olive wasn't anxious in new places as long as she had a human. She was great in hotels, air bnbs, visiting friends, literally anywhere as long as there was a human. When I lived out in Utah and flew home for the holidays, I had to find her a dog sitter who worked from home and was okay bringing Olive out with them on their holiday adventures. She literally went to random people's Christmas' and happily hung out on a couch.

How smart she was - she was such a smart dog and took quickly to trick training and agility training. I taught her to sit, stay, follow/heel, down, spin, roll over, play dead/bang, bow, high five, touch, and how to jump over horse jumps. She was clicker-trained and whistle-trained and was such a smart and fast learner.

When I lived in Utah and would fly home for Christmas, I would have to find someone on Rover who would take Olive into their homes for the holiday (they had to work from home and bring Olive to their family Christmas). I would get photos of Olive with a room full of strangers, napping on the couch, just happy to be with humans. As long as there was a person around, she was the most easy-going dog you had ever met.

National Parks Visited: 11

Acadia National Park/Maine Road Trip

Arches National Park, Utah

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Cuyahoga National Park - Ohio

Badlands National Park - South Dakota

Mount Rushmore National Monument

Wind Cave National Park - South Dakota
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Towns/Houses we lived in together: 6
Essex, Chester, Salt Lake City, Stonington, Guilford, Old Saybrook

Overnight Backpacking Trips: 3