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 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.
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| Bouncer in the backyard at my brother and sister's house in Morgantown. |
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.
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| Bouncer laying on my while we watch TV. It may be hard to see me behind 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.
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| 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. |
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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| 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. |
