Two months have gone by since Boomer passed away. Katy and I still struggle from time to time.
In our kitchen his water bowl and dog food bowl were still in their normal spot. His rope and rubber bone were right next to them. We always accidentally kicked his food or water when we went by, and the other day I did it again, and thought to myself “maybe I should move those bowls”. I talked to Katy about it and we decided to move them out to the garage.
I didn’t know if I could do it. With a big sigh, I picked all that stuff up and brought it out to the garage.
And then the grief hit me like a tidal wave.
It was awful.
But we had to move it sometime.
He is so, so missed.
As usual, the best way to cope with the loss is to tell a story about his water bowl.
Boomer was the sloppiest water drinker ever. When he lifted his head from the bowl the water would drip off his tongue for at least 5 seconds. Usually he was walking across the kitchen floor during this time, so we always got our socks wet whenever we walked by his bowl.
Boomer ate food like a horse when he got up in the morning. There was never a piece left. Then he would typically lie down for about 45 minutes until he got thirsty. He’d get up and take about 100 drinks from the bowl.
We had two stainless steel bowls and the larger one was for his water. During Columbus Day weekend of 2004, we went camping in Manchester, NH with the Holts. We drove most of the way up Mount Kearsarge and parked our car to hike the rest of the way. When Boomer got up to the top we took out his bowl and filled it with water. We tied him to the Water Tower so he wouldn’t run off. We took some pictures and then hiked back down.
The picture at the top of this blog post was the last time we ever saw Boomer’s water bowl. We left it on the top!
Below are some great pictures of Boomer, the Todds, and the Holts, all on top of Mt Kearsarge.
