In Memoriam: Boo Dog 1996 - 2009

My faithful canine companion for over a dozen years has gone on to the big dog park in the sky. A week ago Boo was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and I knew he did not have long to live. By today he had become too weak to eat, drink or even take a treat. I knew he was telling me it was time to go to a better place.

They say all good dogs go to heaven and these days I think that maybe they should be the only creatures allowed in. If I find myself so lucky after my passing I will be disappointed if there are not more dogs there than people. Dogs are indeed very special animals.

I came by Boo via a previous girlfriend named Rosemary. When we first started dating, Boo was staying with her on a rural piece of property her parents owned near Manvel, TX. I remember the first day I visited there and met Boo. I really did not know what to expect except that I figured a girl would have a girlie type dog. But when he came running down the driveway towards my car I was pleasantly surprised and thought to myself "now there is a really great dog". I was right and Boo turned out to be not only a great dog but a fine friend and a source of many laughs and fun times together. When Rosemary and I broke up Boo stayed on with me, as we had bonded closely.

Boo was a great watch dog and always "barked up the bad people" (whether they were actually bad or not). For many years he was my swimming coach, running up and down the edge of the pool while I swam my laps. Boo was also amazing at fetching a tennis ball. He could get almost as much air as Michael Jordan when jumping to catch the ball in mid-flight. In his later years with his eyesight failing (cataracts) he could still find the ball by using his sense of smell and a dog's innate ability to know where things are. At his very core Boo was a working dog, always wanting to know what his job was and ever-ready to do it. He was not much for petting though. He would tolerate it to a certain degree but never seek it out. I used to joke that I was about to give him some torture whenever I was about to pet him.

Boo and I spent many, many days at the West Alabama Ice House. I don't think he much liked being at the Ice House, just the walks to and from. But he would curl up faithfully beneath my feet at the bar stool waiting patiently until it was time to go home. People were often completely unaware Boo was there, all to often cracking open peanuts or ashing their cigarettes over him. He knew the way home better than me, evidenced one night when I, a bit in my cups as they say, tried to turn one street too early while walking home. He pulled at me hard, making me aware of my navigational error and forcing me to make a mid-course correction.

I had learned much earlier of Boo's awareness of where home was. One day at the Ice House a motorcycle backfired very close to the table where several of us were seated and under which Boo was reclining. The boom scared us so that we all started laughing when we realized we were still intact. It was several minutes before I noted that Boo was gone. I looked all over the grounds of the Ice House and Boo was nowhere to be found. I asked around if anyone had seen him and several people pointed in the direction of my house. I walked the four-plus blocks home and sure enough, there was Boo sitting in my driveway with a proud look on his face. He was smart enough to know not to hang around a place where things were going to blow up.

Boo learned all my tells. I always thought that dogs would make great poker players if they could play cards (as depicted in those awful black velvet paintings). They are great at picking up even the slightest tell about what is to happen. Each day I would take Boo for a walk in the afternoon. I grew up visiting my grandparents in West Texas a lot. There you learned to knock out your shoes before putting them on in case any nasty critters had decided to crawl in. I have maintained that habit to this day and that was my tell for the afternoon walks. As soon as Boo heard me banging my shoes down on their heels he would come running and barking in a frenzy to get going on the afternoon walk. I used to tell Boo to be patient. People are not as good as dogs. We have to stop and put our feet on every day. Dogs don't. They are always ready to go.

Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCEdtwosi-Q to see a funny video of Boo reacting to my tell before going swimming each morning.

The last thing I told Boo before he passed on towards heaven was to look for a couple of other dogs who were very dear to my heart. One was named Arlo and belonged to my sister and the other named Sadie and was my mother's dog. They were both border collies and spent a lot of time together, especially around our pool in Fort Worth where we grew up. I told Boo to look for a couple of black and white dogs chasing each other around a big blue kidney-shaped pool. You can see a video of those two here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEjaZNOziak. I think Boo and these guys will make good friends.

Boo as a young dog.

They says dogs grow into their ears and feet.
Boo certainly did.

2008 Is Over!

I was thinking that it only seems like a year ago it was the start of 2008 and so another year is gone. I won't bore your with tales of my travels and pictures of far away places. You see, I pretty much stayed in my 'hood all this year. I did take lots of pictures and you can see those at my photo website www.ronscott.com.

I started the new year off with a bang... well, more of a bam! On the way back from toasting in the new year with some bubbly at my favorite restaurant Divino's I stepped into an open water meter hole (the cover was missing) and went down on the sidewalk like a sack of rocks. No major damage (except to my ego) and I escaped with a few scrapes and a sore shoulder. Now if you were the uncharitable type you might suggest that the consumption of adult beverages in pursuit of New Years eve revelries might have contributed to my fall, but I hope not. Gravity is gravity and surely that was the main culprit.

2008 was not without its moments for me even though I did not travel afar. I had an exhibit of my work displayed as part of FotoFest 2008 as well as a new batch of my work on hanging at the aforementioned Divino's Restaurant. Another birthday came and went and many enjoyable hours were spent with friends at various parties, pubs, bars and restaurants. I logged six pool parties at me casa last Spring and Summer plus a post-Ike party in the Fall for added measure. Oh yeah, almost forgot old Ike (the hurricane, not the President). I escaped any major damage at my place but much of Houston and all of Galveston did not.

My dog Boo got a year older too. He had a couple of expensive visits to the dogspital but is on the mend now. I did not escape this year without a medical malady either. In mid November I was diagnosed with a detached retina and underwent surgery the next week. I seem to be mending from that episode too. Fortunately I was able to put all the expenses for Boo and me on the Amex card and rack up some reward points which I hope to use for some travel in 2009.

My end-of-year rant would not be complete without a mention of the events that shaped 2008. We elected our first African-American president following an election that gave us some memorable moments and great fodder for pundits and comedians. I am going to miss Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin. The sub-prime mortgage meltdown sucked the life out of our economy and the stock market collapsed. The CEOs of the Detroit Big 3 automakers flew to Washington in separate private jets to beg Congress for a bailout and erstwhile financial wizard Bernie Madoff scammed a lot of rich people out of billions. Congress voted 700 billion dollars to prop up the financial sector and now that they have burned though half of it nobody wants to say where it went or how much wound up in the pockets of the guys who got us in this mess in the first place. The governor of Illinois was caught scheming to turn his appointment to fill Obama's Senate seat into his own payday and the one to be vacated by Hillary may go to a princess who can't stop saying "you know". Oh what fun and I am sure there is more to come in 2009.

Happy New Year y'all!