Bobo

John and Bobo

Mare and I have no children, even after being married nearly 35 years... Slugg, Massad, Marc, PK, Bruce and a few others know what the above subject line from earlier today means. Like Tristan, I have had comrades and even enemy soldiers die in my arms. I've heard their last words, or cries and saw their eyes fade in war. Yet, this friend blew his final breath in my face as I held and rubbed his head and said special words to him... The last touch, voice and image he had in this life was from me... And he licked my face and died... Pupils dilated and he was gone... Bobo... The Siberian Husky we saved from the Pueblo Animal Shelter who was my best canine friend for the past five years... Probably in my life... He was diagnosed with an adenocarcinoma in his right lymph node and lower right leg about nine months ago and the prognosis was maybe 4-6 months to live... We treated him with continuing love, pain-killers and other meds recommended by our trusted veterinarian. He played with and loved me and Mare and the rest of the furball platoon for nine months but then recently lost 15% of his body weight and stopped eating even filet mignons and lamb chops we made for him the past week. He was telling us that it was finally time, even though he continued to climb the 48" boundary fence to go visit his female coyote friends...:-) So what some of you might say... He was just a dog... Maude and other Listees have had pets die. You and Mare have five cats an over 20 dogs still roaming "them thar hills"... Why was Bobo special? Fair question... After all my mom died from lung cancer in my arms in her hospital room in Leavenworth, KS in August 1997. I'm sixty. I've had pets die in Vietnam and Panama to disease and enemy fire. And here at home from old age in a vet's office or even from a seizure in our living room or from a stroke in the back yard in Kansas. Shit happens... It's part of the fabric of life. But IMO, Bobo was almost human in his intelligence. We roamed the arroyos together, he warned me of the presence of Western Diamondbacks, coyotes and bears on our 175 acres and snuggled between me and Mare night after night. I'd awake in our queen-sized bed at 5:30AM or thereabouts with his muzzle in my ear and my loving wife saying "Jonathan that dog clearly loves you more than I do!"... Well, maybe not that much, but he was special... We have two other Siberians here, Brandy who is reddish and Lobo who is a black and white. They are kind, alert, excellent guard dogs and OK with the felines, but, in a manner I detect, they are not Bobo... Today I lost a special friend to cancer, and it hurts... Maybe, when I visit my friend PK in Delta, CO in May I will find a gray and white Siberian Husky at a breeder we know there, and maybe the magic will strike again, even if I pay $700-$1000 for it this time. But I somehow kinda doubt it. My life changed today. I hope I will make easier and perhaps wiser choices after the very painful one we made today at 4:19PM... Kinda misty after writing the above.