Thursday, January 19, 2017

Bouncer



The other day a friend posted a movie trailer for a movie called A Dog’s Purpose.  I saw the post the morning I was taking Bouncer to the vet and knew nothing good would come from watching it and have yet to watch it as of this writing.  But the title stood out too me.  A Dog’s Purpose.  Dogs have many purposes more than I will take time to list.  But Bouncer’s purpose was to love and be loved.

I remember the day I went to the SPCA in Newport News during my senior year of college.  I went over there with my buddy Casey.  I’d always wanted my own dog and while I can say I didn’t intend to get a dog that week, I also didn’t intend not to get a dog that week.  We found this cool looking dog that was part coonhound and part Rottweiler.  He had the coat of a rotty, but everything else about him was hound.  I went back the next day and paid my $35 to bring the dog home.  I told the kennel my home was my parents’ house and not a dorm room at CNU.  I also told my parents my fraternity brothers got it for me as an early graduation gift.  What are two “little” lies for the greatest dog ever?  For the next month or so Bouncer lived with me on campus.  Since dogs were not allowed on campus I would have to sneak him out for walks.  I eventually talked my parents in to taking him home so I could focus on finishing my senior year.  My parents were thrilled, in the sense that they were absolutely not thrilled.

During the days I would take Bouncer to the fraternity house and tie him up in the back yard.  One because I didn’t want him barking while I was at class and two he got to be outside.   I don’t think Spencer ever told me this story until after I graduated, but he was at my apartment on campus studying with my roommate.  Apparently after they finished their assignment Bouncer got ahold of his homework and did what he would do to many a pieces of paper after that and chewed it up.  The next day Spencer went to his professor and told him his fraternity brother’s dog ate his homework.  Yes he used the old dog ate my homework excuse.  The professor figured either the story is true or you have got guts using that excuse that he gave Spencer an extension.  Spencer still brings this story up to me even today.

Bouncer was one of the few dogs I knew that was terribly afraid of water.  I don’t know if this is something he was always afraid of or something that happened later.  In college my girlfriend Nicole and I were traveling and we took Bouncer to my parents so they could watch him.  We stopped at her mom’s house and Bouncer was running around the yard, we were chasing him around the deck.  We had him cornered and he had no place to go, or so we thought.  He chose option C which was to jump in their pool.  It was late March/early April so the pool was not warm.  Nicole was yelling at me to jump in and I told her he will either learn to swim or he won’t.  He got to the side of the pool and I pulled him out.  Needless to say, he never went near water after that.

After college I moved in with my good friend Chuck.  Chuck got a dog not long after we moved in named Max.  Bouncer and Max loved to go on adventures.  Bouncer, like his name loved to jump.  Chuck and I would find Bouncer outside the fence and we always thought he had jumped the fence to get out.  Well one day we realized he had really just learned out to lift the latch with his nose.  Well one day Bouncer and Max got loose and ran all over Falmouth.  They were seen down by the river, running across route 3, and eventually in an office park.  The dentist that found him got them in his car and took them to his office where we met them to take them home.  After that Chuck bought a chain and a lock, he ran the chain through the fence and the gate making it impossible to get out.


Bouncer in the backyard at my brother and sister's house in Morgantown.
Bouncer used to get to go everywhere with me.  Back when we were apartment living he would go to Morgantown with me to visit my brother and sister.  They had a fenced in yard so he could run around with my parent’s dog and have some fun there.  On game days we would do our tailgating in the backyard since we could walk to the stadium.  One Saturday my mom ordered chicken wings.  I still haven’t found the thing that Bouncer wouldn’t eat.  We joked that he was a garbage hound because he would just pull things from the trash and eat it.  Well a group of my sister’s friends were sitting around the table outside.  One girl was holding a wing up and waving it around as she told a story.  Bouncer was watching it and his head was swaying back and forth with her hand.  Then out of nowhere he snatched the whole wing right out of her hand and took off running.  I know he swallowed it whole because by the time I got to him there was no bone or chicken meat to be found.  A few years later we were having a steak and cigar night at my place.  A friend finished grilling his steak and placed it on the table outside (with the dogs) then went inside.  When he went back outside the steak was gone and Bouncer was licking a juicy spot on the patio.


Bouncer laying on my while we watch TV.  It may be hard to see me behind him
Bouncer in his younger days weighed about 75 lbs., as he got older and ran less he was closer to 90+.  His size was great for a guard dog, but not so much for a lap dog.  Bouncer believed he was a lap dog.  Every night after work he would climb up in the chair with me and lay across my lap and I would just sit there watching TV and pet him.  If you weren’t petting him and he wanted you to he would nudge his nose under you hand and flip it up letting you know that it was time to pet him.  But Bouncer was a good guard dog too.  Nobody could come near the house without him letting them know he was there.  But he wasn’t the dog that would run towards the supposed danger, he would stay near you and make sure you were safe.  My mom was telling me about their walks the other day and said there was never a person that could walk up on her without getting by him first.  At some point Bouncer had become afraid of Thunderstorms.  With that he was also afraid of fireworks.  He would never leave my side during a storm or on holidays with fireworks.  Once our girls were born he would go to the landing outside their doors and lay there making sure nothing happened to them.  If their doors were open he would go in and lay at their crib standing guard.


There are better pictures but this is the only one on my phone.  Savannah was maybe 4 or 5 months in this photo.  I always loved watching her play with him.
The day I picked Bouncer up from the kennel his cage had a card on it.  The card had his name, age, weight, and information provided by the previous owner.  Bouncer was 35 lbs. and 16 weeks old.  The note said, “Do not get this dog if you have small children.”  Funny story, when I got Rollins the owner said I wouldn’t get this dog if you were planning to have children or have small children at home.  You see both dogs at 4 months of age loved to jump up on you when you walked in.  That is something you have to train a dog not to do.  It’s not that the dogs were or have ever been bad with children, it’s that their previous owners didn’t take the time to train the dogs to not jump.  Bouncer has done nothing but love our two girls.  He would walk over sniff them and then lick their face and walk away.  Even the last week he was around when I started to notice his decline he still let Savannah climb and play with him.  He just loved the attention.  You see he just wanted to be loved and because of that he loved us unconditionally.    That was his purpose.


This was a weekend at Grandma's house while Ashley and I were away.  Bouncer is in the front, Rollins is the brown dog behind him.  Sammy is the Beagle on the right in the front and Tabby is the black dog in the back.  In the last 2 years we have had to say goodbye to 3 of the 4 pictured. 
Bouncer was my dog for 13 years.  The last half he saw me marry my wife and have two little girls.  The first half he was the reason I was never alone.  He made me smile on days when nobody else was around and kept me getting up and moving forward even if it was only to get up to feed him and walk him.  There were days when I never thought I would meet someone, but I always had him.  He hasn’t been able to climb on the couch for a while or even into the bed, but I will miss having him lay on my lap and keep my feet warm at night.  Like I told Savannah the other night, Bouncer may not be here anymore but he is watching over us every night.  He will keep you safe whether he is here physically or not.  From Guard dog to Guardian Angel.  We’ll miss you Bobo.

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