BEST BUDDY EVER

I'm thinking of warmer days this morning after nine straight days of well below zero temperatures. Looks like a break coming in the middle of next week. Fingers crossed.

This is Vin Braveheart INXS.....Vinnie. We met 3 May 1995 when we found him and his litter mates at a country house in Waukesha County. He was the bully of his litter we were told. But he ran right up to me as I sat on a hay bale and put his front paws on my legs. He wanted "up." I put him on my lap and he curled up in a ball and went to sleep. I was hooked.

Two weeks later we picked him up and he was at my side every day from then on. He learned the "NO" word quickly and then to walk at my heel without pulling. We'd walk down to the local gravel pit where he could run and not get himself into trouble. I remember the day he discovered a big water puddle in the road. He ran into it...stopped and turned around to look at me...then ran through it again and again and again. And the muddier he got the more he enjoyed it. From that day he loved the water...except when it was bath time. I never did understand that dichotomy. But after his "shower" he'd shake and rub all over the grass and when I tried to dry him with a towel he just got energized, grabbed the towel and it was time for tug of war. It was then I appreciated the brute strength of a Golden Retriever with 4-wheel drive.

We went everywhere together...me driving and him in the back of the pickup. He had his own foam/canvas mat to lie on and he was the happiest dog ever. Occasionally we'd go to Culver's for some frozen custard. I'd open the tailgate and sit on it in the parking lot and he'd lie at my side with drool dripping off his lips as I ate a bowl full. He knew that when I'd finished it he'd get to lick out the dish. The drool was in anticipation of that. You should have seen the driver's entering the lot smile as they saw the two of us.

When I was at school teaching, my wife said he'd jump on the bed and lie there all day. Then, with a radar that only dogs have, he'd moved to the back door 10 minutes before I got home from school. He'd lie there and then get anxious as the truck entered the alley.....dunno if he could tell the sound of the truck from anything else out there or if it was doggy ESP. But he'd greet me at the door like I was gone for a year. 

Then it was his time. And we'd walk or run in the woods or do something together before I had to do my homework. Then he'd curl up and lie across my feet under my desk so that if I'd maybe move, he'd know it and would be ready to do whatever was on my mind. He didn't care what...as long as we did it together.

I lost him Nov. 24, 2008. I can't believe it's been more than 12 years. I miss him every day and the weight of his lead on my lap when he thought I needed a break from my homework. Tears.