Buckeye

 As a stay at home mom and manager of the household, there are many rhythms that fill my days.  The rhythm of waking with the sun in the quiet of the morning...of washing and drying dishes...of washing and folding clothes....of messes that are made and then cleaned up...of food bought, prepared and served....of schedules coordinated and organized so that everyone gets where they need to be...of caring for the needs of our pets...a rhythm that looks and feels a little different these days.  Last week we had to say goodbye to our Buckeye boy.  It was time, and we all knew it.  He had developed cancerous tumors inside and outside his legs and we could tell he was struggling.  Shew, I wasn't prepared for how it would hit me.  This was a dog that as a puppy, almost drove me to insanity.  From the day we brought him home he wasted no time destroying everything in his path.  Clothes, chewed up.  Walls, gnawed on.  Irrigation hoses, chewed through. Basketball hoop padding, eaten.  Trampoline padding, eaten.  Weeds, mulch, cardboard, Amazon packages, all consumed and destroyed.  He would nip at my arms...cross his invisible fence boundary line and barely flinch...he would do the exact opposite of almost everything we tried so desperately to teach him.  My poor hubby remembers well, the day that he pulled into the garage....I met him on the landing, holding a 5 month or so old puppy and said, "Get this dog out of my house."  In that moment he went from being a one day outside dog, to an outside dog right then and there.  When his behavior seemed to only worsen, we decided to put out an ad, hoping someone might be looking for a really cute white lab.  Turns out there were people looking, but we very soon realized there was no way we could go through with selling that crazy dog.  He was our Buckeye.  Yes, in that moment his behavior was terrible.  But our oldest son had met a kindred spirit in that pup....Jack was a terror as a young boy...strong willed and disobedient at times.  But we never gave up on him and in his eyes, why in the world would we give up on Buckeye.  He fully knew and believed that with some time, Buckeye would be just fine.  And he was.  We got through those first few years and that wild pup started to become a loyal and protective dog ....more gentle and loving...and a very best buddy to Jack.....and as much as I didn't want to admit it, to me.  He became such a good boy....never the sharpest tool in the shed...but a good boy who would follow me everywhere.  Now there's a hole in that rhythm of my day....but I'm so thankful for all the memories we have....the good and the bad....all part of a season in our family's story.  Oh Buckeye, you certainly will not be forgotten.