We said goodbye to our buddy on August 26. It was the saddest day, ever. He was 10 years young, and still full of his trademark enthusiasm.
The vet said the problem was in his spinal cord, causing his hind legs to stop working. She said it was time for him to go to the Rainbow Bridge, and I said he was going to heaven. Mom still misses him most of all, and it has taken her a month to finish this blog post without getting too emotional. She said it's important to focus on the happy things we want to remember about him.
Like, how, even as a puppy, he had this blank stare that made you wonder if his brain was completely empty. Mom said the fact that he was intellectually challenged made him that much more lovable.
Independent Maggie loved him instantly, as if he was her baby. She would spend the day curled up at the gate to his crate while Mom was at work. Then they would play for hours at night.
He had a habit of sleeping in the funniest places.
His life spanned the first decade of my Mom and Dad's relationship. This picture was taken the weekend after my parents met on a blind date in North Carolina. Mox was 7 months old.
Mom thinks Dad liked dating her because he liked her dogs, especially when Moxie brought him gifts of little dead squirrels he caught in the yard. Mox gave his stamp of approval to Mom's prospective Boston in-laws.
He was so proud to be included on the hike up Whiteside Mountain where Dad proposed to Mom.
He and Maggie were like their first children.
They tolerated the cross country move to Austin.
They loved the new parks and lakes where they could swim and chase angry hissing swans.
He was patient and gentle when the first crying baby arrived. He probably knew that I would grow up to love him and give him yummy snacks from my highchair.
I think he thought of himself as the firstborn son, and had no problem taking his royal place on the couch, even after human babies started showing up.
He was happiest when sitting as closely as possible to us or things that smelled like us.
He tolerated our human rules, like having to get a bath after playing in the hail storm damaged yard.
Or getting haircuts to control those golden retriever hair tumbleweeds that littered our house.
He loved having kids around to dress him up.
And he was ecstatic when a baby boy was introduced to the family. These two were inseparable.
He loved being a part of our family.
We'll miss his soulful eyes, pink nose, and compulsive need to be near us. We'll miss hearing his clumsy tail wagging on the hardwood floor in the morning as soon as he heard the first stirring of kids waking up. We'll miss being trampled in the front door by his overenthusiastic greeting every day when we returned home from school and work.
He was a great dog and we were lucky to have 10 years to love him. Rest in peace, Buddy.
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