Goodbye Bodie

I called home all day from work but no answer. Matt was outside watching Mr. Maines with the septic installation. I had been up with Bodie in the wee hours, lying on the sofa above him, stroking his fur. I covered up his paws with woolen socks because he was kicking his legs and making his pads raw. I kept him covered with a pillow under his head, but every time I came out to the living room he had shaken them off. I gave him water before I left for work, and put the mashed up food in his mouth, but he wasn't eating. Then no news all day. I got home as soon as I could and there he was, still on the floor. Matt had Mr. Maines dig a grave in a lovely spot in the field, Bodie's field. No more leaving beloved pets behind in rentals. I'll wrap him in a blanket and pull him out of the barn and lower him in. I'm devastated to lose him, as I thought he would live forever, but I'm relieved that he is at peace. Some Bodie recollections:

Aunt Carol called me from the Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ, and asked if I wanted to adopt a puppy. One of the pups had exhibited signs of a neurological disorder, a "MS" for dogs, and they decided to adopt out the whole litter. She would vouche for my character and help the paperwork through. I had to wait a couple of months for them to make sure Bodie was healthy, then we met at the Seeing Eye facility. I had to put on a total body suit with shoe covers and stand outside of the run. A ball came out of a little door, followed by several golden balls of fluff. One of them was Bodie. I carried him to my car and brought him home in a cardboard box next to me on the seat. He kept popping up and I kept one hand on him the whole ride out to the cottage I was renting on 68 acres in Phillipsburg - Bodie's first home. I was an "at home mom" for a year after leaving Morristown, and had Bodie all to myself (along with Daisy, Sparta, Jasper, and Georgia). We were a pack. I had just moved there in August and Matt was helping me get settled. He decided to stay and a wedding was planned for Dec. 19, 1998. I asked Matt about taking Bodie and he said, no, we have enough dogs. But I had other ideas (so what's new?) Matt came home from work one night and I put Bodie's head outside the kitchen door curtain so that's all Matt would see. I gave Bodie to Matt for a wedding present, and he always said it was the best gift he's ever received. Bodie loved growing up in the country. He could catch a ball in his mouth, thrown at full speed from across a field. He swam in frozen creeks and ran wild through the piney woods with his dog pack. Daisy was a grown one year old when we got Bodie and she thought Bodie was her own personal chew toy. Daisy loved to gnaw on Bodie's head. She gnawed on it so much I didn't think his scalp would ever grow back. People would wince when they looked at him. Dr. Sandra Frey was not amused when she saw the damage Daisy did to Bodie. I didn't know how to stop it, as Bodie thought Daisy was just loving on him, and he didn't stick up for himself. Bodie had some issues, though, and one of them was fireworks. We were celebrating New Year's Eve with our traditional fireworks show, orchestrated and operated by AJ, when Bodie took off and disappeared. Matt and I were leaving on our honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean for 10 days. We almost cancelled the trip. Mia came to the rescue, as usual, and canvassed the neighborhood. She found Bodie, living in a complex of greenhouses with some of the local dogs. We didn't find out until we put into a port on some island and called home. What a relief! Bodie could be mischievous and naughty at times. One of his favorite nasty habits was to push down the bunny playpen on the lawn and kill the bunnies. I would find him lying side by side with a dead bunny and Bodie would be looking at me like what's wrong? The bunny hair between his teeth proved his guilt! Bodie's cherubic baby-face masked a down and dirty country dog. But I always forgave him...even when he broke my leg! Yes, I will be reminded of Bodie 'til the day I die with the weather pangs in my bones! He didn't mean to do that to me. I was carrying bunny buckets to the cages when all of a sudden, BANG, POP, and I was flying through the air. Bodie was carousing around with the other dogs and either tripped or misjudged his space and rammed into me. He thought I was down on the ground to play with him, and wondered why I was pushing him away! I healed up eventually. It was not easy to negotiate the "Jersey winder" colonial staircase to get to the upstairs bathroom, but Bodie got into the bed with me every night and kept my cast warm. Enter the camp potty that was to serve me well when I moved to this farm and they took my portopotty away in the winter. Time to go and bury my old friend. He's lying so peacefully on the floor, I hate to disturb him...but his soul has moved on to a better place. Let me take care of what remains.