I want to tell you about my baby Butch. We brought him home on April 8, 1987 at 10 weeks old. He was shepard and american eskimo mix. He was the best puppy ever. He learned fast about potty and was never a chewer but once!!! and that once was one time to never forget. We went out one night and we came home and Butch had torn our comforter on our bed to shreds and there was stuffing through out the house. My daughter was 2yr. old and thought this was funny. It was the only time Butch ever chewed or made a mess.
He grew to be the best dog I have ever owned and became my baby and my shadow. He followed me everywhere and came with me when our daughter started pre school. He would ride with me to take and pick her up. He loved to ride in the car. He would sit right up next to me and sit and with my arm around him, he would watch everything.
When my son was born in 1992, he was so curious when we brought him home. The first time I was nursing my son Butch jumped on the couch and sat the top of the couch and waited for me to finish and waited for me to say okay, he came down and sat next to me and smelled our son up and down and licked his little toes.
We moved in 1994 and adopted Murphy a lab/spaniel mix and they just loved each other. They went everywhere together.
As the years went by old age caught up with Butchie and arthritis set in and I helped him sometimes get up. His eyes werent the best in the dark and he went deaf. I picked him up in the dark when we went to bed.
Butchie loved the kids and watched them grow to be 17years and 12years old. They would help butch any time he needed some help.
My baby Butchie was 15 years old when I let him out on November 20, 2004 and he didnt come back in. I couldnt see him iether. My husband went out and found him floating in our pond which had a fence around it and we didnt know how it got to be open. He followed Murphy everywhere and all we could think of is that he followed Murphy into the pond area lost his footing or his eyes went out completely or that Murphy accidently pushed him in when he turned around or he was dead when he fell in. I will never know and that is what killing me. My baby was gone.
Now I am trying to get passed this and I cant get that day out of my mind. I keep hearing my husband saying “oh my God, he is in the pond”.
Yes, I know he is warm and happy but I wasn’t there to help him when he needed me and that is killing me inside. My friends say that God took him because he knew that I couldn’t put him down, well the lord could have taken him another way. But would it matter how he died? I would feel the same any way he went.
I have his ashes now and made a collage of pictures of him from puppy hood to just a few months before he died.
For Christmas this year, just a month after the Lord took my baby, my husband gave me a locket with my Butchie inside. He told me that Butchie will always be with me. I have yet to go a day without that locket on and when I think of my baby I hold it.
Butchie and I had that special bond that you only have once in your life and he took apart of me when he left me. There will always be a missing link in my life but he will always be in my heart.
Play and run my baby. One day we will be together again and you will be the first one I will be looking for. I love you Butchie, dont ever forget that. I am sorry I wasnt there to help you that day but God had another plan and I can’t change that. Everything happens for a reason and What that reason is, is not always visible but there is a reason and you can bet that the day I am done with me life on earth and I have my Butchie in my arms again I will ask the reasoning for taking my Butchie the way he did.
Until we are together again Butchie look down on us and smile. We will never forget you.
Until we meet again
| Sue Giannosa |