Dogs and Decades

Like so many couples, my husband, Skip, and I adopted a Golden Retriever puppy before we had any children. Before marriage. Before we knew what responsibility really meant. Boomer was our first baby, and like all new babies, quickly became one of the most important things in our lives. Skip flies model airplanes in a big way (more on that later). Boomer loved to watch Skip fly his planes at the soccer field, barking and circling on the ground, tracking the plane until Skip would land, at which time Boomer (all 100 lbs of him) would come barrelling up to the fragile plane... about to grab it and bring it back to us like a tennis ball. Skip would yell "OFF" and Boomer eventually learned to halt before biting the fuselage. If Skip ever lost site of his plane in the air, he knew all he had to do was look at Boomer to get an idea of where it was. It ended up being the method we used for exercising Boomer. I would say to Skip, "can you go fly the dog?"

Eventually Boomer's eyes started to fail, his muscles began to hurt and he grew older. The chasing of the planes stopped.

Boomer lived for 14 years and we finally had to put him down last winter. He came into our lives pre-children. He left our lives a decade and a half later. When I held him as the vet put him to sleep, it was as if I was watching a video of the last 15 years of my life. Memories flooded my head...marriage, the birth of all three of our children, building our house, potty training, starting school, changing careers, travel, surgeries, illnesses, new friends, old friends, family. Boomer was there through so much, and then he was gone.

7 moths later, we brought home a new Golden puppy and named him BEAU. He is the new photo album with lots of unfilled pages, unwritten memories of the many years of life ahead.

Our children, now 6, 6 and 10, will have this new dog there through another decade of changes. Growing up to adults, changing schools, jobs, girlfriends and boyfriends, tears and laughter.

How many of these incredibly memorable dogs do we get to have in our lifetime? 2? 3? It gives me a sense of life's rapid pace.

Our daughter Grace comes home from school everyday and screams "Beau! Oh Beau, how Ive missed you today", wrapping her arms around his head and holding him on the floor. What a wonderful thing...for both the dog and the child.