KPR wrote me the other day and told me that whenever I was ready to send a dedication in for Stobey. I told them I did not think I was ready yet, it was too soon. It has been a very rough week and I am apt to burst into tears at a moments notice. He became such a large part of me in such a short period of time. Our relationship was so simple and easy, almost childlike in nature. I have had many rescue dogs, many hundreds, pass through my life over the last 25 years and none have touch me the way he did...none. I have had good dogs, even great ones, but not one that had this simplicity. He and I were destined to meet. I don't really fully understand why, I guess I am not suppose to understand. It would be much more simple and possibly less painful if I did...maybe not.

My 6 year old daughter brought home a book today. I had yet to read this one. I started to read it to her and broke into tears. She said " I know you miss him mommy, I do too!" So simple, my Laurel and her comment and her book. I could gush about what Stobey and I had. There really are no words descriptive enough to explain it. Maybe because it was so simple, so easy. Maybe that is what made it so special, our bond. I would like to share my daughter's book in memory of my Mushy Man, my Stobey. He was a piece of my soul...

Before You Were Mine by Maribeth Boelts...In Memory of Stobey

Before you were mine...

Did you live in a warm house with warm smells, and a rug that was only yours?

Did you have a boy who saved you the last bite of his cookie and raced with you at the park?

Did you have another name-like Gus, or Sam, or Teddy, or Howie, or maybe Miles-before you were mine?

Was your boy proud when you learned a new trick?

Did he talk about you at recess?

Or laugh when you licked his chin?

Before you were mine, someone must have let you go...

Maybe it was because they forgot that puppies like to chew stuff and pee on the carpet and bark at birds.

Maybe they did not know that dogs like digging holes and drinking from toilets and hogging the bed when it's stormy.

Before you were mine...was someone mean to you?

Were you kept on a chain, with a dusty bowl and lonely sounds all around?

Did someone say, "Bad dog," even though it wasn't true?

Before you were mine, maybe a family loved you, but they had to move and a guy at the new apartment said no dogs allowed and he meant it.

Or maybe one day they left their gate open and you ran away and they never heard that if your dog runs away, you look for him...until you find him.

Before you were mine, the shelter told us that you had been running for a long time...

Eating whatever you could find, which wasn't much.

Alone and scared like a dog shouldn't be.

Did you sleep in dark alleys?

Did you dream of a child?

Before you were mine, you were rescued.

They brought you to a place, they gave you a meal and a bath and a bed of your own.

But you weren't sure.

You huddled in the back of your cage...shivering, with your tail tucked under.

Before you were mine, we had an old dog, as worn-out and friendly as she could be...and when we said our good-byes, she wagged her tail one last time.

We sniffled and prayed and cried a lot, like there would never be another dog who would love us just as much, and who we would love, too...

But there was...you.

Before you were mine...

They could not have known what they had in a dog like you...or they would have never let you go.

So maybe it doesn't matter what happened before you were mine...

Because now...your home.

Rest my little man.

I will always, always, love you and will think of you often until the time we can be together again...