Today, I made my usual run through one of my favorite web sites, Michigan Sportsman, looking to see if there were any hot topics that I might need to write about this morning.  The first one I saw was a post titled hunting partners, and for what ever reason I was intrigued to read it.  The gentleman went on to say how he had just lost his hunting partner, which happened to be his beagle dog, and how this dog was not only a hunting partner but a family pet and friend as well.

     This brought back so many emotions for myself.  It is almost two years to the day that I lost my best friend Buddy.  He wasn’t a hunting dog, but he was my best friend.  I had the fortune of having him in my life for fourteen years.  Bud was a mutt, a lab mixed with something, I really don’t know what kind of cross breed he was, but he was an awesome dog.  My sister found him tossed in the snow as a puppy in a parking lot one night, and she rescued him and called me to ask if I wanted him.  I had just bought my first house with my future wife and thought that, that is exactly what my house needed to become a home.  The little stinker chewed the molding off of every door in the house, but he eventually grew out of it.  Then came our first child, and Bud moved over to give him room. He never became jealous, and then came the other three kids.  Buddy would let the kids do just about anything to him, he was so gentle and loving. 

     Well as the years passed, age crept up on Buddy along with our neighbors dogs.  We watched her have to put one of them down, and Buddy knew too.  You could tell he missed his girl across the fence.  As a few more years passed, so did buddy’s health, we knew it wouldn’t be long before we too would have to make that decision.  One day out of no where Bud began to seize.  After a rush to the vet and a long talk, he explained he had a geriatric disease that would eventually get worse, but there was a small  chance that it was only a one episode event and that he might live a normal life.  I couldn’t put him down just yet, I wanted another chance with him.  Well, it wasn’t a month later and he had another episode, much worse than the first.  Deep inside I knew it was time, I went and got the kids from school and we made the trip to the vet together as a family.  That was the hardest thing I think I have ever had to do.  Why should I be the one to decide when he would leave this world, I didn’t think that I had that right, but I knew I couldn’t let him suffer either.

     Together with all the family there with him, we watched him slip into the afterlife peacefully.  I would like to think that God has a special place for good canine friends to roam and play pain free from this world.  The gentleman that wrote in about his dog wanted to know how soon is too soon to get another dog.  We chose to get one within a month afterwards.  That is exactly what we as a family needed at the time.  We traveled to a breeder and picked up our new friend, Ruger Blue!  He will never replace my best friend Buddy, but he sure helped me during a time of need!  We now have three Brittany Spaniels and our house is total kayos!  But I love em’ all!  It is amazing how attached we become to those furry little animals.  I miss ya Bud.