so my dog died yesterday. i am sad. it is crazy how difficult it is to lose a dog. it sucks. and i am totally bumming about it. ugh.

bodie has been an integral part of our family for nearly ten years. he greeted us at the door, drooled by our dinner table, barked at our company, slept on (and in) our beds, and travelled the country with us. he opened Christmas presents with us, napped at our sides as we watched movies in the living room. he made us laugh with all this quirky habits and fears. he wouldn’t walk across the hardwood floor or the garage floor for fear of slipping. and if he mustered up the courage, he would only go one way. so we called him One-Way. when we were about to give him a cookie, he would make this hilarious noise that made us laugh every time. in the mornings, he would come up to the side of our beds and rest his chin on the mattress and exhale through his nose as if to say “I am here. notice me. and get up!” he would nudge and paw us for more pets and would sit on top of us if we sat on the floor. if we stopped petting him he would get grumpy at us and paw for more attention. bodie loved pancakes only if they had peanut butter and syrup on them and of course got the last bite of every sandwich. i remember when my parents first brought him home. he was so precious. he had the biggest head and paws. and all sorts of excess skin. that dog had more nicknames than one could imagine. bodie-bohanen. bovanovitch. bode-man. hansome. big-old-handsome-hairy-boy. bode. ophy. one-way. hairy-beast. possi-traction. bo-bo.

man, we loved that dog. he wasn’t just a dog in the backyard. he was a member of our family and part of who we are. he has be there for so long and so many of our memories include him. i can’t separate the last ten years of my life from him. he was my bud. my bodie. indeed, a man’s best friend. he always was happy to see me. would get excited at the sound of my voice on the phone. and would happily greet me when I got home. we walked, played, wrestled, danced, cuddled–together. he was my bodie.

and now, he is gone. ugh. home will not be the same without him. i am so not looking forward to that icky feeling of emptiness and wrongness when i go home in a week…