Bob Slobbers and "Bye"
Updated: Jun 28
We met Bob Slobbers at an adoption fair held in a pet store a few miles from our house. The dogs sat in a semi-circle, almost like a therapy group, in front of their individual crates. Billy and I split up, wandering around and reading the little biographies taped to each one.
I found a scruffy mutt that seemed pretty cute. I turned to find Billy so I could show him and saw him sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a hefty black Lab mix.
They were locked in a stare-down.
I walked over. Billy looked up at me and pointed to the dog's biography.
"Bubba." That was all he said.
I knew right then Bubba was coming home with us. A week later, after the adoption agency finished making sure we were suitable humans, he did.
Billy renamed him Bob Slobbers before the day was over. It fit immediately. Bob drooled on everything. He lumbered instead of walked, flopped down wherever Billy happened to be, and carried himself with the confidence of a dog who had somehow convinced himself he'd always lived there. Within days, it felt less like we'd adopted him than like he'd finally found his way home.
The two of them were inseparable. Bob knew Billy as "Daddy" and me as "Dad," and I'll swear he understood the difference. If Billy left the room, Bob's head would lift before his feet followed. At night, he'd wait until Billy settled into bed before climbing up beside him with a sigh that sounded almost human.
I filmed this little video because, ever since Billy had given me that camera for Christmas a few weeks earlier, all I wanted to capture was the two of them.
What none of us knew was that Billy had only two and a half days left.
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