Buddy's Final Post is Littered With Love

It's 2020 and Buddy is now 14 years old - that's about a hundred in my years. More than a few years between blog posts but - hey - we've been having fun in Smyrna, GA.  I'm chugging away pretty good but Bud has lost a few paw steps along the way.    His rear legs are flagging and his occasional dribbles became an ever-flowing dribble such that the lady of the house insisted on adult dog diapers inside.  Throughout the physical decline, Buddy's love all things human and canine remain abated.  That began to come to an end on Sunday afternoon. 

After a regular 1/2 mile walk at 7 a.m. on Sunday, Bud settled into the morning nap position until we returned home from church about 1:30.  Then out to pee but not much energy. Later, while lounging on his favorite living room rug, he re-visited his last several meals and all of his in-between meals snacks, depositing their remains around the red and black fleur-de-lis design of the rug.  Not wholly unusual. Unfortunately, this purging continued until about 10 p.m. as Buddy never moved from his spot on the hardwoods, interspersed with inserted small rugs.  Occasionally, yet briefly, he lifted his head giving us a ray of hope, eyes half-closed. Clearly, he had eaten something vile, we hoped, and we would take him forthwith to his vet in the morning.  Sadly, our prayed about rays of hope were fleeting

Alas,  it was not to be.  Our faithful Pal had run out of options in this life.  I bedded down next to him for the night.  Rubbing his belly and side about 3 a.m. his breathing seemed a bit labored for not exercising.  His breaths now took longer to come and to complete.  At 3:30 stretched his head a bit and without any apparent struggle, Buddy gave it all up. 

And, what an ALL it has been!  Never encountered a human or a dog he did not want to immediately become best Buds with.  Big or small.  Of course, most of the little doggies - Bud called them hors' doeuvres, - mostly barked at him.  You know, the little dog-big dog syndrome.  Yet, Bud NEVER barked back at them.  Just a look, then he was on his way.

For sure, Buddy was a lover.  A lover of all things human and all things canine.  Oh, he loved a good hump once in a while, even if the intended host was not having any of it.  You see for him, love was a many-faceted adventure. And, for sure, Bud loved whatever Cindy was cooking and especially her Friday night and Sunday pizza suppers as well as snippets of the  chips and cheese from my nacho creations.

During our life together Buddy and I were truly blessed to know other wonderful, love-filled doggies and pack-walkers:  Derby, Rusty, & J.J. in Fort Wayne; Delilah & Laila on the Silver Comet Trail in Smyrna; his Beagle-Cousin Joey in Marietta; and Jaxson, Sonny, Addie, Twiggy, Chewy and sometimes Bosco in the Park @ Poplar Creek, our neighborhood.  THANKS for the great memories and LOVE to all from Buddy and his caregiver.

I hope you have had the great fortune to have and love a doggie that loved you unflinchingly, no matter what.  Ok, maybe there was a bath rebellion or an under-the-fence escape but -hey - dogs have rights too!  

In our life together, since Cindy "found" Buddy at Lab Rescue of Indiana in January, 2008,  and two-year-old Buddy and I met at his foster Mom Julie's home in Indianapolis, it has been a lasting love-connection that was of life-long mutual benefit.  Our unspoken - yet lived-out promises were:  I will be your faithful, loving dog; and I will be your faithful, loving caregiver. I know Buddy proudly upheld his side of this bargain through early Monday morning, and I pray that I have kept mine.

Rest confidently in your well-lived life, Buddy, and enjoy your fully-bellied, long, long nap in eternal peace.  Happy wags!