04/09/2007 – 01/05/2008
a.k.a. p’tit gars
We loved the neighbours’ chocolate lab Whisky and would take care of him while his owner was at work. He loved to play. When the neighbour moved away we decided that we should get our own dog.
We found a breeder that had just what we wanted, a male chocolate lab. We first saw Bo-D while he was just 5 weeks old, still feeding on his mothers milk. The breeder kept looking at his paws and legs saying that he would be a big dog. In all the years he had litters, he said this would be the biggest one he ever had. We were anxiously awaiting the day we could pick him up. We got a call from the breeder telling us that Bo-D had contracted parvo virus and was at his vet. The breeder seemed worried. We found out later that Bo-D was at the vet on intravenous for a week and had not been expected to live. But somehow he survived.
We finally picked up Bo-D when he was 9 weeks old. He still had severe diarrhea and looked anorexic, not like the fluffy puppy we had seen before. In the next couple of weeks he gradually got better, eating and taking care of business like a normal puppy. Then all of a sudden he became super puppy.
He was like a puppy on steroids. He would get up at 5 or 6 am and play all day, eat a lot, then play some more until he finally would fall asleep late at night. He never slept during the day and was up for 18 hours. It’s like his close-death encounter had thought him to enjoy every minute of every day that he had left. And enjoy he did.
He loved to play with all kinds of toys, but he had such strong teeth and jaw that the toys would get ripped to shred in no time. He used to pick up rocks in the driveway and crack them. When the bigger neighbourhood dogs would come around he would jump on them to play. And when the big dogs had enough they would put him on his back, holding him by the throat, but Bo-D would still be kicking and as soon as the dogs would release him he would be right back up jumping on them. He had no fears.
Bo-D loved to eat and would go to the island where we kept his food and bark whenever he was hungry. He also loved to chew on hard food like rawhide and would want one of us to hold the other end while he chewed. One day while my wife was holding a rawhide he accidentally bit her thumb fingernail. His tooth went right trough her nail, ouch.
Bo-D went to puppy kindergarten classes when he was 6 months old. He used to pull a lot when he was on a leash, especially when he saw other dogs. We were hoping to correct this but it just made it worse since he would see the other puppies and would just pull to go see them. He did not like having to sit around during the classes while the teacher showed us stuff. He already did all the sit, stay, come commands without needing any rewards. All he wanted was to play with the other puppies. There was a 5 minute free for all at the beginning of the class where all the puppies were loose which was his favourite part, he would run around checking all the other dogs, that was fun.
After Bo-D had gotten over his parvo he started to grow and just kept growing. He would grow overnight. We could actually notice the difference from the previous day. He kept getting taller and heavier. When we compare his different weigh-in at the vet with the ones from Winzor at the same age, Bo-D actually weighed 5 or 6 pounds more each time. And Winzor was a very big boy.
Bo-D loved the outdoors. We would play with him in the snow for hours and when we were exhausted and came in the house he would go straight to the back door wanting to go out again. So we decided to get a light chain to tie him because he would of chewed right through a rope in no time. He loved to chase cats and squirrels but he would forget that he was tied up. First time he chased a squirrel his collar broke, so we got him a really tough one with a metal buckle. Next time he broke the chain, so we got a heavier chain. Then he broke the hook between the chain and his collar. So we gave up on the idea of tying him up.
Bo-D loved to go for long walks on the secluded bike trails beside our house, often off leash but would always come back when called. He knew what time I got home from work and would wait by the window knowing that we would be going for another walk. We all got in good shape doing these fast-paced walks a few kilometres long while he was running all over smelling all these different scents but would always remain close to us.
Three days before he was 8 months old he saw a cat cross the highway and took off after him. He got hit by a car and died instantly. We were devastated. He was approximately 90 pounds then and still growing. We would of loved to see him fully grown and often wonder how big he would have been had he lived longer.
Before we got Bo-D we never wanted to own any pets and were quite content with our quiet life. But when he died after living with us for only 6 months, the house all of a sudden felt so cold and empty that we realized that we would never be able to go back to the way it was before him. So after a few days we decided to get another dog. We got Winzor the next week which helped to fill that emptiness. Even after many years we still miss Bo-D and think about him often.