Scott Troyer: Almost Legal

As a Leap Year baby, he tries to appreciate a birthday that comes once every four years

There are weeks like these when I truly appreciate my husband, Scott Troyer, who turns 17 on Leap Year Day (68 in human years). He patiently shuffled me from vet to vet this weekend as I cuddled my beloved Sophie in my arms after she took sick and ultimately succumbed to a sudden illness.

We’ve been to this rodeo a few times, first with Hannabelle, our nine-year-old Golden, then with the pugs Ming and Gordie (both 14 and stinky upon their passing), then Finnigan, the crazy Black Lab who died after multiple seizures. We’ve had a lot of dogs in the 21 years we’ve spent together because we had them in multiples. We love them all, and we loved them well, and our hearts ache every time we have to say goodbye.

We haven’t had a death in the family now for five years. This one is hitting me hard because Sophie spent 11 years glued to my side. With her passing, I feel like I’ve lost a limb, and I miss her spooning with me at night and her constant presence as my protector.

Scott has been my rock during these terrible times, never complaining, always a comfort, and this week I am truly appreciating the man who took on a single mom with three challenging teenagers, and two fat pugs. Hannah was our first dog together. We made the trip to Almonte and scooped up this tiny little creature who helped us heal the family.

I can’t write about Scott without writing about the Puppy Pile, the dogs we have owned, and loved. We now only have Viggo, the giant and unruly chocolate lab, and we will give him all the love left in our hearts. He will heal us, as Hannah did in the beginning.

Right now, the three of us are a bit lost but we’ll get through it because we are lost together.

Stellar Career

Scott had a life before me along with a couple of mistakes in the wife department before we got together.

In those days, Scott lived for his fabulous career as a CBC news cameraman travelling the world, seeing the best and worst of humanity. He covered the Air India crash, multiple Olympics, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Oka crisis, the Iditarod dog races, and the horror of Davis Inlet. He travelled with Prime Ministers from Trudeau to Chretien, interviewed Mickey Spillane over tomato ketchup soup, and bought Kiefer Sutherland and David Cassidy beers because they had no money.

He squeezed a lot of experience into his short life before retiring from CBC after 26 years (not sure what that is in Leap Years). But his knees hurt and he had a hole in his heart from a failed marriage. That’s when he found me drinking in the smoky backroom of the National Press Club, playing shuffleboard with a bunch of hacks, flacks and MPs.

The last 20 years have been challenging for both of us. We bought gear and started a video production business just when digital came on the scene and destroyed our lucrative little business.

We licked our wounds and did two documentaries together and hung out with musicians backstage at two music festivals. Man, we had fun. We didn’t make a nickel but we made a few lifelong friends along the way.

Scott parked his ego and sold cars and stereo equipment, and cut wire at Home Depot until finally landing a job as a Commissionaire five years ago. That job gave us stability. It isn’t glamorous but he still got a few stories, like the time he chased an RCMP Musical Ride horse who had fled the stables and headed toward St. Laurent Boulevard.

These jobs aren’t challenging, but the hours are long, and he paid his dues working overnights and weekends. He got contact dermatitis on his head from the heat on Parliament Hill during Canada Day and lost all his hair, and later severed his Achilles while guarding the West Block during construction.

Now he divides his time between being a desk jockey and running a gate for the RCMP. It’s a day job, not too bad.

We had great parties over the years, but alas most of our friends have gone to their reward. But still have fun mainly sitting around the backyard with a few cocktails and listening to our friends on Amazon music or visiting with our terrific family and grandkids — who are our ultimate reward for a life well lived. He’s grandpa, even if only in name and spirit. He can’t wait to meet his first grandson in July, maybe teach him some stuff just like his own granddad taught him.

My prayer for us is that we grow old and stinky together and Viggo lives long enough to enjoy the ride.

From us all, thank you, Scott!

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