I Will Always Have a Piece of My Uncle With Me Thanks to My Buddy 🐶

Still flooded with sadness and mourning of the sudden loss of our beloved 3 year old German Shepherd, Hampton; who had passed away 7 years ago; we weren’t quite ready emotionally to get another dog. Grieving is a timeless process that is different for everyone and her sudden passing, 3 days before our wedding, just amplified the sadness and memories of her. She was a beautiful, rambunctious and loving dog. Although her life was cut drastically short, the time we had with her was so precious and meaningful and comes with forever lasting memories.

We were of course in shock with her sudden passing from leukemia and had no idea what to do. Rewinding back in time a bit to better explain why her sudden passing was very traumatic: We both arrived home from work at the same time that day,(not prepared for the events that were to transpire) and we found our baby girl laying on the floor near the bathroom just gazing at us. With all our mighty strength of adrenaline, we picked her up and put her in the back of my car thus driving frantically to the vet. Our hearts were racing the whole time during the 10 minute ride that seemed like it took forever. While halfway to the vet, we heard a noise from the back and both our hearts sank with instant sadness. (It felt like she waited for us to be with her to say goodbye.) We arrived to the vet where he then told us that she had passed. He allowed us to spend some precious time with her in a private room. We were both inconsolable of course. The vet provided us with many options and we reluctantly chose cremation, which was new to both of us. Now, looking back and reflecting on our decision, we are glad we chose cremation. We have a shelf with her favorite toys, her picture, her collar and her. Even to this day, when we look up there at the shelf, we are reminded of all the great memories we had of Hampton.

Three years ago, my uncle had a litter of puppies with one puppy (the runt) left. We still weren’t ready for a puppy emotionally at that time but as I go forward into the story you will see why we were so grateful that he had the lone puppy left. We thought long and hard and after seeing constant pictures on social media of the puppy playing with his personal dogs, we eventually fell in love. A week later, I contacted my uncle and asked him if we could adopt the puppy from him and give him all the love in the world. My spouse has been a dog groomer for 18 years and had groomed all his dogs at one time I’d another so he knew we would provide the puppy with the attention and love we needed. A week later, adoption day had arrived. What was previously hesitation had turned into bittersweet excitement. As soon as we walked in to greet my uncle and the mini golden doodle, before I could even bend down; he ran to me, tail wagging, and started licking me. What an inexplicable feeling of unspoken instant love. We took the puppy home and named him Buddy, as we both kept using the phrase “come here buddy boy” and the name stuck with him.

Right before Buddy’s second birthday, my uncle from whom we adopted Buddy from, passed away suddenly from a heart attack at 50 while working. It was a shock to our whole family. Overwhelmed with sadness, our family had to figure out what to do with his four golden doodles. Instead of giving them to strangers, a different family member of mine each took one dog, including my father. I was so glad my father was able to take in Autumn because he lived alone and the pandemic had hit shortly after. It broke my heart to not be able to see my father but it was even worse knowing he was alone; so knowing he had a companion in Autumn had eased my mind a bit. As far as grieving the loss of my uncle, which was terrible; we still look back to the day when we adopted Buddy from him and forever say: “we will forever have a piece of Uncle Rob with us.” Buddy and Autumn are half siblings and both were from my uncle’s personal dogs so my uncle lives on through them as well as the other 3 dogs that were taken in by other family members.

Buddy is a vivacious, energetic and loving dog who loves to run around outside. We definitely get our exercise playing with him. He loves other dogs and playing in the dog park in our community. He and Autumn get to play together regularly as my father lives in the same community as us. What a lucky coincidence and yet another unexpected deem of fate.

Many unfortunate circumstances may have occurred around adopting Buddy but not a day goes by that we regret our decision. We consider ourselves privileged and lucky to have Buddy in our lives every day. Buddy will never replace the loss of Hampton, however he rejuvenates our love for life and dogs every day. In addition, knowing we will always have a piece of my uncle with us and hoping he is proud looking down on us at how we are raising Buddy, gives us a sense of peace and solace. They say “ everything happens for a reason,” and I truly believe that wholeheartedly. While we weren’t ready for another dog, all the series of events that transpired after we adopted him, made us realize how lucky we will forever be. Our Buddy boy is our special baby who filled the last empty piece of both our hearts. Hampton is our angel and Buddy is our soul. They both will hold special places in our hearts forever.