It is with great sadness that I report the passing of my incredible gundog and constant canine companion AKC WILDROSE CAYDEN SH. Cayden was a black Labrador Retriever bred out of a long lineage of British and Irish Field Champion bloodlines.
An integral member of my family from his addition as a pup, I hand selected him at the breeders and immediately began the training process to shape him into an incredible field gundog. Over the years, Cayden competed with me as a team in a number of AKC and UKC sanctioned hunt tests and he earned his Senior Hunter title with ease. Cayden absolutely lived to hunt, work, and easily won the hearts of those around him. Cayden worked for me as a field gundog and was shot over by a number of clients for several guide services during wild gamebird hunts. Just last year, he was the field gundog on a benefit guided hunt that we donated specifically to raise funds for a fellow ITM flute and whistle musician that had suffered major economic loss as a result of Hurricane Sandy. All proceeds from that hunt were donated to that musician and family.
Cayden spent all of his days living with my family in our home and was like a shadow to me in my everyday activities and on numerous gamebird hunts over the 7 1/2 all too short years that we were blessed to have him as part of our family. Cayden was literally like a 2nd skin to me and I am absolutely crushed at my loss of him.
Cayden would often join me on the deck at night while I was taking in the starlit sky and playing some Irish whistle. I would often sit on a bench long enough to accomodate myself and an 80 pound Labrador and he would come up and sit along side of me while I played. He was always just content beyond all reason to simply be by my side. The feeling was quite mutual and he brought me great happiness and comfort for simply being near me.
We lost Cayden to a suddden and inexplicable death on 9/3/13, the day after my birthday
and the opening day of the resident season for Canada Geese (he both lived for and loved waterfowl hunting), so that was a cruel irony losing him on that day. My wife came home to find he had collapsed and died in our bedroom. She called me in a neighboring state as I was away on business for the day. I could not get home fast enough and sobbed all the way home.
We had Cayden cremated. I am in the process of commissioning one of my favorite decoy carvers create a working decoy that will serve as an urn for Cayden’s ashes. That decoy and Cayden will accompany me on my hunts to favorite marshlands that we hunted together and he will remain with me in spirit and deep in my heart. When not riding the waters Cayden once swam so gracefully while retrieving taken waterfowl, his decoy / urn will occupy an honored place in my home. I will miss him deeply all the remaining days of my life.
I selected his name as my “username” when I joined C & F and it remains so as just one more way of honoring this magnificent canine companion that shared his life with me and my family.
I love Labrador Retrievers and I have been truly blessed to have several wonderful Labs bless my life with their antics, skills, loyalty, and unconditional love throughout my years shared with them. To not have a Lab in my home for the last two weeks has brought on a depression and sadness for the void Cayden has left in our hearts. In that regard and to honor what I know would be Cayden’s unfaltering desire to please me, I have initiated the search for his successor. The new pup will be a black male Labrador Retriever of Field Champion Irish bloodlines and I plan to name him “TRAD”, fitting for not only that wonderful genre of Irish music that continually fills the air in my home, but even more so for the tradition and legacy of joy that Cayden brought to my life and the lives of my family and friends. I will personally train TRAD as I did CAYDEN, and I can only hope the little Lad can come remotely close to the skill levels developed by his predecessor, yet as Cayden did for me, I will love TRAD unconditionally. 
Cayden, I’ll miss ye always, see ye on the other side my friend.
Beyond Lost Without My Gundog,
Cayden
