Bo Bandit is in Doggy Heaven.

Bo Bandit

Age 8, ~2000 - September 25, 2008

Bo you will always be in my heart. I miss you so much already. See ya Bubba!

Nickname: Bo, Bubba, Momma's Boy

Bo was a very special dog to our family. We actually owned both of his grandparents, Noah and Chelsea which were full blooded Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, and when they had puppies, my cousin David took one of those pups (Blade) and bred him to another full blooded Chesapeake Bay, therefore, producing Bo. We got Bo in January 2000, when he was 3 months old. He was just like your ordinary pup, into everything. In the beginning when he was still just a pup, we had three other dogs, Murphy, Chance and “Puppy”. They all got along really well in the beginning. As Bo got older, him and Puppy started having territorial problems. So they had to be separated. Which meant even though we had a big fenced in yard, there had to be a pen built in the back yard, to keep Bo in while Puppy was loose in the yard, then when Puppy would go in the house. Bo would get to run free in the yard. Tragically on March 1, 2002, we lost “Puppy” in a house fire. The other 3 including Bo, were outside.

But anyway, we soon moved to a new house with 5 acres, part of the yard was fenced in, so once again, Bo had a big yard to play in.

We lost Chance on my Mother’s birthday, January 31, 2004. We lost Murphy March 31, 2007. So for the last 18 months, Bo has been an “only child”. He sure did get spoiled even more than he already was.

When we would be eating, he would be sitting at the bottom of the stairs in the den, watching and waiting. Waiting on me to make the least little motion for him to come to me. Then he would be rewarded with a treat from the table. But he wouldn’t come in to where we were until I have him some kind of signal, or said, “Come on.”

When I would come in at lunch, it was just part of my habit to come in one door, lay my stuff down on the stool beside the door, and go to the backdoor and open it so Bo could come in the house and spend time with me on my lunch break. Most times, he would just come in and lay down in the floor after he went running down the hall to the bathroom to drink out of the toilet. Then he would just lay there and watch me until I would get him a “Cookie” (Doggie Biscuit) and say, “Come on, Bubba, it’s time to go out, Momma will see you in a little while.” Out the door he would go. Conveniently when we moved into the house that we are in now, the backdoor is one of those old wooden doors with screen wire on it, and the bottom left hand side of the screen was torn out, so that was like his “doggy door”. That’s how he always came in and out right up til the last few days.

Once I got home in the evenings, if I went outside, he went outside, if I came in the house, he came in the house. I would go sit out on the porch a lot, and he would go right out the door with me, down off the porch and lay down and watch every move that I made. If I so much as moved like I was going back in the house, he would be right there with me, lots of times knocking me out of the way so he could go in first. That was just Bo though.

For a dog that is supposed to be a waterdog, he did not like water at all. His grandfather, you could play with him with the water hose, shooting water at him out of the hose and he loved it. With Bo, if you so much s turned the water hose on sprinkle, he went the complete opposite direction. But he did however, like to put his big feet in his water bowl and he would dunk his head in the water, but that’s it. No more.

Bo really liked playing ball, not just your average tennis ball, he started out when we first got him, playing with a soccer ball or basketball (a full size soccer ball and basketball), he would play with it until he sunk his teeth in it and would pop it, which usually took about 5 minutes. He still carried it around until there was hardly anything left of it. So he went through a lot of soccer balls and basketballs through the years. You could throw the ball and he would run and get it, and start back towards you, but no way was he going to actually give you that ball, not without you having to play with him to get it back. He’d put it in his mouth and shake his head back and forth, until you would finally get the ball away from him.

At feeding time, which was at 6:00 pm every night, if I hadn’t made the attempt to start getting his food ready, he would start pacing, and looking at me like “come on now, I know it’s time to eat". You could ask him, "Bo, are you hungry?" He would start barking and running towards the back door. Especially after he heard that spoon hit the side of his bowl. Then once I would put his food out on the porch in his bowl for him to eat, he would eat a little bit of it, then pick the bowl up and carry it out to the backyard. So lots of times before he could be fed, I had to go out and look for his bowl in the backyard.

If you really wanted to get Bo excited you only had to say two words, “Bye-Bye”. Bo loved riding more than anything. We have a Dodge Ram van, and all you have to do is say, "Bo do you wanna go Bye-Bye?" and open the door, and then step back real quick, cause he would go running as hard as he could to the van, to the doors on the side, standing there wagging his tail, like come on now, let’s go, you said the magic words. Didn’t matter if you were going 10 miles or even if you just got in the van and drove it 20 feet, as long as it moved, Bo was happy.

Bo got sick a couple of months ago, he went from 150 pounds down to about 90 pounds in a matter of three months. When he first got sick, we started taking him to the vet, and of course they gave him medication, but he just kept getting worse.

Last night, my Mother and I went to eat with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter (who is 2 years old). When we were getting ready to leave, we decided to leave Bo in the house, and I told him, “I’ll be back in a little while, Bubba.” Well, little did I know at that moment, that when I would return home, that things with Bo would just go down hill from there. He was really bad this time. I made the very hard decision not to let him suffer anymore. My Mother called our vets office, and talked to them, and they told us that they would come to the house, to help Bo quit suffering. That’s one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. I went out in the yard, before the vets got here, Bo was laying in the yard, I went over and sat down beside him, and told him how much I love him, and how much joy he has brought to my life in the last 8 years. He looked up at me with those big yellow eyes as if to say, “Thank you, Momma”. I was holding his head in my lap and stroking him and talking to him as he took his last breath. But Bo, I want you to know, that I will see you again at the Rainbow Bridge, and the next time I see you, that you won’t be sick anymore. That’s what gives me comfort now, is knowing that you are no longer suffering.