Womans Best Friend

I'm sad today. And yesterday, and the day before. Our pug died. His name was Bucca. He was just the best pug EVER. My sister brought Bucca home without any warning like 15 years ago (give or take, we all get screwed up on the date). I was in college, but home for the summer. She didn't ask anyone, she didn't ask my parents, she didn't kind of hint that she was thinking about getting a dog. She just came home one day with this cute pug nosed little guy. We already had a dog (a collie) and a few cats, so it wasn't that my parents were against pets. But in typical and wonderful Chrissy fashion, she wanted something, and on impulse, decided she would get it. So Bucca came into our lives.

My mom told her she had one week to find another owner because we were NOT keeping that dog. Yeah, RIGHT! I think he won us all over in like 3 days. He was only a year old when Chrissy got him, and he seemed to be a normal sized pug. But he ended up HUGE! I mean really. Most pugs are like, I don't know, 20 lbs? He was 40!
Yeah, you read that right. He was so sweet, and so lovable. He wasn't super hyper, and he loved to cuddle and sleep. I can remember full weekends where Chrissy and him just stayed in bed and come out solely to take him outside, and to get some food, then back to bed.

He sold our whole family on pugs. They became our dog of choice. So then a few years later, we decided to go for pug #2. Zoe. She was Bucca's little sister, and followed him around from day one. I think Bucca didn't love it at the beginning, he simply tolerated her. But they became the best of friends.

Bucca had a great life. I always said if I came back as a dog, I would certainly want to be my parents dog, because boy was he spoiled! When I lived at home, I would come home from work and smell something cooking and be like "Mom, what's for dinner?" and she would say "Whatever you decide to cook yourself. I'm making this for the dogs." And there would be two hamburgers cooking. She would buy them a rotisserie chicken every week when she went grocery shopping that was just for them. We weren't allowed to eat it. It was for the dogs. They ate more table food then dog food, and every single night ended with the dogs and my dad splitting a bowl of Butter Pecan ice cream.

I can remember this one time when I was living home, and I was so sad, and I was crying in my room (don't ask me about what, probably some sort of stupid breakup with a stupid boyfriend) but Bucca walked into my room, jump up on my bed, and start licking my face. It's like he knew I needed some love, and he always gave it. Heck, he was even mentioned in the speech our best man gave at our wedding. Everyone loved him, and he loved to be around people.

He was old, and he lived a heck of a charmed life, for a dog. He was having trouble breathing, and he went to see a specialist, but it was too late. He died on Wednesday in an oxygenated cage at the specialist.

He was a wonderful wonderful pet, that brought my whole family a huge amount of joy. He will be greatly missed. And wherever he is, I hope he's got a never ending bowl of shrimp to eat (his favorite food!), a comfy bed to lay on, and a constant hand rubbing his belly! We love you and miss you Bucca!
R.I.P. Bucca





Love,
Erica