Fields of tennis balls

We had our sweet golden retriever Cisco Bob put to sleep a week ago today. It's a little easier to write about it now that it's not so raw, but it's still hard. He was going down hill pretty rapidly, the last weeks were a dramatic change. Bone cancer is nasty stuff. I told myself there would be "something" that would happen that would make me make the decision to have him put down and he started bleeding out of his nose Mother's Day evening. The cancer had obviously spread to his lungs. Last Monday was probably the hardest day of my life, waiting around for the vet to come out was tough. But it was painless and he's not hurting anymore. I imagine he's up in heaven running around in open meadows with 500 tennis balls and countless people to throw them.

I'm sad that Wesley will not remember Bob. He would have been an awesome dog for a little boy. He was just the most loyal dog I've ever had. We bought Cisco Bob as an 8 week old puppy one month after we got married back in 2001. He was our first kid. We were in our last year of college and living in an 600 square foot house with a crazy golden retriever puppy. What fun times we had. He chewed on furniture but heck, who cares about their college furniture anyways! He was a nutty dog. I remember taking him to obedience training when he was 6 months old. One of the obedience tests was to hold your dog on a leash at your side with one hand and with your other hand you held a spoon with a cotton ball on it. The goal was to walk with your dog at your side in a calm manner so as to not drop the cotton ball off the spoon. Needless to say after a few steps with crazy Cisco I had dropped the cotton ball....Cisco saw me drop it and proceeded to eat the cotton ball. Sucked it down before I even could react. Everyone in the class was laughing. He was such a clown.

One other story about Cisco that comes to mind when I think about him was his first Christmas. We traveled to visit Sean's parents and once we arrived we went downstairs to depost our bags in the bedroom. Cisco ran in the room and immediately found the tray of rat poison under the bed and ate it all. We freaked out told Sean's parents who called a family friend whose dog had done a similar thing. We poured a concoction of hydrogen peroxide and milk down his throat and within seconds he was throwing up all over the place. The poor pup threw up for an hour.

Cisco Bob you will be missed. Rest peacefully old friend.