Ever since I was a little girl, all I wanted was a puppy.  I wanted a cute fluffy golden retriever puppy more than anything in the world.  My parents were adament that we were NOT getting a dog. Lucky for me, our neighbours at the time had a sweet yellow lab.  To prove to my parents that I could care for a dog, I would watch this dog “Barkley”  every time the family went away.

When I was in Grade 6, after walking Barkley hundreds of times, it was time for school speeches.  I decided to write a speech about “Why your parents should let you get a dog.” I guess it wasn’t all that bad, since it got picked to go to the school-wide competition.  I knew when I looked out into the audience at my mum as I said the lines I had memorized for weeks, that she was sold.  I was soooooo getting a dog.

Sure enough, we started looking into breeders, and were well on our way to getting the puppy I had beggggged for for years.  Finally, we met the pregnant mum who would be having our puppy, and we were beyond excited.  Sadly, when she had the puppies, they didn’t all make it and we were last on the list.  In a random turn of events, there was another litter in California that would be coming to our breeder.  If anyone knows my love of California, it makes perfect sense to have my dog come from there 🙂  We got to go and pick our puppy, and I remember picking Buddy right away.  He came up to us first and was playful and wouldn’t leave our sides.  I couldn’t believe it when we were driving home with Buddy in the backseat.

14 years later, I write this post in memory of Buddy, who was truly the most amazing dog I could have ever asked for.  He was not only the most beautiful (I know everyone says this about their own dog, but seriously, he was perfect), playful, loving, loyal and fun dog.  I love nothing more than going back to my families home to have Buddy run to the door with his tail wagging so hard that he couldn’t even control everything he knocked over in his path.  And he alwayssss had socks or a stuffed animal in his mouth.

I couldn’t even imagine how hard it would be to say goodbye to our family dog.  He was such a big part of our family.

He was embarrassed due to a bad haircut this past Christmas in the photo below, haha.  But he looked pretty darn good for being (13) at this time!
In the end… I know we were really lucky to have him for 14 years.  He brought our whole family so much happiness (and cuddles).  He will be missed… big time.

T