On Sunday Morning September 19, 2010 at about 11:30 AM, while I held him in my arms Snow looked up at me and in to my eyes one last time saying without words a look I will never forget “I loved you, Goodbye”.  A few minutes later my best friend passed away.

One cannot prepare for the one so important in one’s life to leave.

“Man’s best friend” is a nickname given to the dog. The popularization of the term is said to have occurred in a courtroom speech by George Graham Vest in Warrensburg, Missouri in 1870 who said, “The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.” The phrase was later shortened to “man’s best friend” Vest’s speech came at the closing of a trial in which he was representing a farmer who was suing for damages after his dog Old Drum was shot by a neighbor.  Source Wikipedia

When humans emerged from the evolutionary process, they were greeted by a wag of the tail and a lick on the face. It seems like that sometimes. As though we emerged from the primordial ooze and there they were. In fact, we evolved together, and our special relationship with canines has existed since prehistoric times. According to Darcy Moray, zoo archaeologist from the University of Tennessee at Martin, the oldest convincing case occurred “In Germany, about 14,000 years [ago]. Not only was the dog buried, it was part of a human double grave,” (Archeology, November 8. 2006). Furthermore, Moray continues, the oldest evidence of this human/canine bond in North America is between 9000 and 10,000 years old, with dog burials documented from every major land mass in the world except Antarctica.

Snow was from an outstanding lineage of Pure Bread White German Sheppard’s, Certified AKC Pedigree DL89977704.
Snow was named after my love of seeing new snow falling on my birthday.  His middle name came from  Œ (minuscule: œ) is a Latin alphabet grapheme, a ligature of o and e. In medieval and early modern Latin, it was used to represent the Greek diphthong ??, a usage which continues in English and French. In French, it is also used in some non-Latin words.  It is used in the modern orthography for Old West Norse and is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent the open-mid front rounded vowel. In English runology, œ is used to transliterate the Runic letter odal ?  , and so œ is sometimes called œthel or ethel (from ?ðel ‘estate, ancestral home’).[1]As is tradition Snow’s last name was the same as mine.

Snow loved to be with me, he would lie for hours and watch me work at my computer, he blocked my path between the wall and the end of my desk so that if I moved I would wake him if he fell asleep as I had to step over him to get by him.  Although he knew when I needed a break he would walk over ears back and sit down beside me and stick his nose up under my arm and lift it off the keyboard signaling he need me to stop and pay attention to him.  He would sit quietly as I pet him, until he felt he could distract me no longer and he would leave to go find a spot where he could again lie and watch me.  If Snow needed something he would walk over and sit quietly beside me and wait for me to ask him what he wanted.  I would ask simple questions like; “Attention?”,”Scratch?”, “Go out?”, “Goofy water?”, “Biscuit?”, “Downstairs?”, “RR”, when I said the one he wanted he would bark excitedly and run in the direction of the item.

“Attention” meant stop what you’re doing I want you to pet me and let me lick your face.  “Scratch”, meant I have an itch I can’t get to and you need to scratch me.  “Go-out” was a tricky one, either he needed to go to the bathroom, or he wanted just to sit outside.  He would sit outside without a leash and lie either on the back deck in winter, under the shade of his cherry tree in summer, or out front beside his Christmas Tree and watch the world go by under his royal observation.  “Goofy-water” meant I want to go outside and get a drink of water out of my Goofy bowl, the water inside was never as good as the same tap water in his Goofy bowl.  “Biscuit” meant open the door to the cupboard so I can get my own treat.  “Downstairs was his home where he would lie on the cold concrete floor when he wanted to sleep.  “RR” meant I have no food in my dish; we nicknamed this after my oldest son would come home for a snack after school and go in the cupboard to find a snack.  Snow’s food and water dish were right beside where my oldest son would stand while looking and Snow would growl “RR” if my son got to close to his food dish.

He was like a son to me and I’ve raised him from a puppy and he was loyal and true and damn it I loved him. I weep when I think of him. I am unbearably; heart-breakingly sad he is gone.  Everywhere I turn to look in my home I am reminded of his presence, I may never find a more loyal, devoted friend than Snow who loved me unconditionally.

It is this emotional attachment, this un-dissolvable bond that puts dogs over the top. This is what, ultimately, makes the dog – a simple creature but not so dumb after all – man’s best friend.

This story is not yet finished, I can only write so much before the tears turn to streams running down the sides of my face.  From time to time I will add more memories of the best friend I have ever had.

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