13 1/2 years ago I rescued Bus who had already been rescued from sure death. A friend of mine worked at Stater Bros. and while throwing out trash heard a faint scratching sound. Sure enough 3 female puppies, still wet from birth, were thrown away in a box. He found a home for all three girls. One home being that of a friend of mine who happened to live in a house with 5 other guys all around 20 years old. NOT the best place for a tiny puppy. After the boys bottle fed her and she grew to be a fluffy ball of busy-ness, the cuteness wore off and no one had time for her. But I did! Then I met Eric. All in the same week.
She was literally a puff ball of energy. She could jump to your eye level and run faster than any dog I knew. She pulled me on roller blades and my bike. She love to climb rocks with us at Big Bear and go exploring. She even climbed our tree in the back yard. She chased birds every day and had her fair share of possum hunting. She escaped over our 6 foot fence a few times, cruised the neighborhood a few more. But she always came home. She was very devoted! And she could bark. A lot! One of my favorite memories is when Eric bought her a gigantic bone that really was bigger than her. She loved it so much she didn't want to put it down. But she still had to bark. She would be up in the window with the bone in her mouth basically blowing air out around the bone in an attempt to bark. It gives me a giggle to think of it.
I think Bus loved our kids a little more than she simply tolerated them. Especially Luke. He would hug her just a little to hard every day and she would just look at me as if to say, "HELP!" We always said she tried hard to fight the Chow within. They aren't known for their sweet dispositions.
Bus has been a part of every moment in my life with Eric. When we broke up, got back together, moved in together, got married, welcomed Sara into our lives, experienced two other dogs, college, new jobs, and the birth of Zachary, Claire, and Luke.
She was an easy dog in the sense that she never demanded much. She was always healthy, never smelled, and barely shed. As dogs go I think she was pretty awesome.
A few weeks ago she did start to smell and her hair began falling out in chunks. She started drinking excessively and eating less. We dreaded what was to come. Sure enough she had a tumor on her tongue. I should have known when her watch dogging stopped. She couldn't bark without pain.
Thursday night I looked at her and thanked her for being such a "good dog." Eric took her to the vet the next day and stayed with her to the end.
It's pretty quiet without her. Even with the kids running around. We keep thinking we hear her or see her running in the yard. But we also feel a sense of peace because she was in pain and she isn't anymore.
Eric came home with orange roses in honor of our orange doggy. The kids helped plant it in our back yard and Zac made a cross. We may not always be here but hopefully the roses will just like Bus' spirit.
