Boo-Boo, My Best Boy

by Becky
(Parker, Colorado)

Seventeen years and two and a half months ago I nearly ran over a very frightened and abused terrier mix. After taking him to the vet I learned that all his wounds and bruises were from severe abuse. I had my 10 month old daughter perched on my hip as I stared into those big frightened and lost dog eyes.

He had on a collar but I told the vet I wanted to take him home. The vet never looked at the name tag as he unbuckled the collar and threw it in the trash. "He'll have to stay here for a month or more," the vet said. "He's young...about a year...don't know if he'll make it."

But make it he did! Along with a bout of cancer when he was six, and three severe dog fights. Well, not exactly fights. Boo never fought back. He would just lay there and go limp. The first several years of being part of our little family, me, my daughter and now Boo, he would go limp a lot. Kind of like those fainting sheep. I think he had a form of dog post-traumatic stress.

Regardless, he loved his baby Jamie. Crawled with her, walked with her, played with her, slept with her and waited patiently on those days she would get on the big yellow bus in the morning and not come back until the afternoon. And he tolerated all the changes that took place as she grew into a teenager.

Boo understood Jamie's moods. He didn't understand the word Asperger or anxiety or depression, but he knew when his girl was hurting and would do his best to ease her pain. So many nights he saved my sanity and was my shoulder to cry on.

He ran like a jackrabbit, loved to eat clean and dirty toilet paper (yuck), and would always look at the camera if you said his favorite word-spaghetti!

He started getting bone spurs on his hips at age 12 and was nearly blind by 15. He was there to celebrate Jamie's 16th birthday and we were shocked to wish him a happy 17 years on Oct. 31, 2014. Hoping with a lump in my throat for quite some time that my best friend would just pass in his sleep, I knew somehow his stubborn nature would not make it that easy.

His pain while walking or just getting up increased rapidly, and on Dec. 10, 2014, Jamie and I sent our boy, our good boy, on the greatest of journeys.

Not goodbye Boo-Boo... just see you later. Steady Boo, steady boy... Now run!