RIP BIg guy

Sunday while my kids enjoyed a fun family party, Trever and I had to allow Bones to go to a better place. He was very old, and was not enjoying life anymore. Although he never showed he was hurting, my big guy had been in pain for several months. Medication helped as long as it could, but the day came he needed to go see his buddy Chance and his papa Ed. Anybody that knew Bones fell in love with him the moment they saw him, and all of them have their own favorite memory. Although I have several memories, my favorite is the first time I saw "Apollo". Trever and I had been wanting a Golden of our own, we had been looking and just was not finding the right dog. Saturday February 19th 1999 we went looking for "our" dog. Trever wanted to take the first one he found home, but I said no I will know when I find the "one". After a long day of pet store adoption days we went to the Golden Retriever rescue center, I walked downstairs and a very frail, skinny, sad dog jumped up on the gate to greet me. His eyes were so loving, and instantly I knew he would be our dog. His name was Apollo but we later named him Bones because he was so skinny.
Now convincing Trever took a few minutes, as the dog was in pretty bad shape. But when I explained I knew he was our dog because of his eyes, he just accepted and loved him as much as I did from that moment on. My dad had taught me how to know which was the right one through their eyes.
It was rough when we got Bones, he was a mess. He had been abused, which made him very nervous around certain people. Trever's brother Tyler was living with us at he time, Bones would get really excited to see him, but something from his past made him so scared he would pee on Tyler every time he saw him for the first few months. Bless Tyler's heart, he allowed Bones to work through it and they became the best of buds.
The first night we got Bones, we had been hanging out on our back patio and then just went to bed. We forgot all about him, it wasn't until we woke up we realized we had not brought him in with us. We ran outside in a panic, just to find him sitting right by the back patio stairs waiting to come inside. 10 years later, he has never ran away. Although later that night we would discover he had ticks, so to this day I'm thankful he was happy sleeping outside that night.
Bones was truly the best dog. He loved to duck hunt, the thrill of bringing a duck to dad but I think he loved being in the stinky mud more then anything. He loved the snow, he would put one ear to the ground covered in snow and run around in circles. It was so funny to watch, but he was so happy doing it. He loved his buddies Chance and Brody, when they were younger they would all bump chests and then run around wild. Brody is already so sad without his buddy. But the most loving part of Bones is how good he was with the girls, he loved them so much he put up with anything from them. The girls would sit, climb, pull, tug, and ride him and he would just sit there calmly while they played with their big buddy Bones.
Sadly, his body started giving out him. We did our best to keep him with us as long as possible, but his desire to run and play won. We had to let our big guy go. It was a very hard decision, but we know we made the right one. Although every minute our hearts are still breaking when we realize he is not at our feet. This morning I let Brody in the house and Kennedy stopped the door from closing and started yelling "bo bo bo" to come inside. It broke my heart. I know my heart will be broken for a very long time, he was a wonderful part of our family. We will all miss you Bones, Our big bubba Jones. I have so many great photos of Bones, but it was before the days of digital cameras so Ill have to post them when I go through all my printed photos.