Priceless

One week ago today we said an earthly goodbye to one of the four-legged members of our family. He was - and will forever be - the original member and leader of the Puppy Posse. He was our boy and what I liked to refer to as our "million dollar baby."

What some people don't know is that Dave had dreamed of having another boxer (he's a boxer guy, clearly) so when we bought our first our house together we quickly added a 6-week-old puppy to the mix. We drove to Austin and came home with a very sick little boy. Only we didn't know that at the time.

He endured kidney stones, multiple kidney infections, surgeries, procedures and medications during his almost eight years on this earth. We spent a number of nights up at 2am with him because he was sick and feverish. During one surgery he had a stroke and that's why you would so often see his sweet tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

He was stubborn. So stubborn it would almost drive you crazy. But that stubbornness is what kept him here with us so long. And he was a lover of many things - BBQ, steak, Dave, his sisters (all three of them), his squeaky frog, rawhides and treats. Preferably bacon flavored.

After his last surgery in May where a cancerous tumor was removed, we breathed a sigh of relief as the vet told us it was a Grade 2 and was removed with clear margins. Unfortunately, two weeks later I found another tumor on his leg. At that point we decided he had endured enough and we simply couldn't put him through surgery after surgery. We vowed to love and spoil him as long as his quality of life was good. In other words, as long as he was our happy boy.

We took him on vacations, he opened doors at hotels and became the talk of the place, he played ball, walked on the beach and loved life. But shortly after we returned from Galveston he took a turn for the worse. He slowly began not eating as much, more tumors became visible and some days were better than others. But he always rebounded quickly.

In the last month or so, he lost a lot of weight, we started trying any and every food available and Dave even began hand feeding him, which he dearly loved. But the cancer kept him from gaining weight even though he was eating. We cried ourselves to sleep, loved on him as much as possible and reminisced about the many good times he gave us.

But he kept getting weaker.

When I left for Louisiana last Sunday, I put him in his kennel - the one he earned after escaping from the hotel room in New Braunfels - and told him that he'd better be there when I got back. And then on second thought, I told him that it was ok if he needed to go because I knew life was hard these days...

And in the end his sweet little heart just couldn't bear the stress - he was suffering from congestive heart failure.

So he spent his last full day loving on his dad and canine sisters, stealing Dave's pizza and chowing down on grilled chicken.

And in the end, he couldn't wait for me to get back.

It was just him and his dad....

...the way it was meant to be all along.

But we have many precious memories of a boy who loved and protected his family to the bitter end.

Who fought very hard to be here with us for as long as he could.

And who - I'm sure - will be waiting for us when we all get to heaven. He'll be healthy, happy and whole - something we never could fully achieve for him here on this earth though he did have a number of mostly normal years in the middle of his life.

What you gave us, BoBo, were absolutely priceless memories, many years of joy and that will never be forgotten.

So we aren't saying a final goodbye for we will see you later, big boy. Know that you'll be loved and missed every day until we meet again.