Bobik aka Bobo the Wonder Dog

(Here is Bobo the Wonder Dog wearing a t-shirt in California...lucky dog! He is 18 years old in people years so that makes him 126 in doggie years. Man, he's one old dog!)




(Here is Bobo taking a crap in his new backyard. Man, I miss that old feller!)




As most of you know, we had to leave our beloved doggies in the states when we moved to Japan. We were told it's too hard to find a place to live in Japan if you own pets-- those bastards lied to us, but I'm over it now. So, we did as were told, and we found homes for our doggies.





Bobik aka Bobo ended up going back to his original owner- a young Czech girl who originally gave us Bobo because she was moving to England, who returned 4 years later to Mississippi, who now lives in California.. jobless. We took Bobo in because he was 13 years old, and his owner, Czech Girl, didn't think he would survive the time in quarantine associated with her move to England.

I met Bobo's mom/owner when I moved to North Texas to live with Husband. I brought my dog Felix, who is now called Pilah, to live with us in North Texas (when Jude was a baby he couldn't say Felix, so he started calling him Pilah..and he couldn't say Bobik, so his name became Bobo). We lived in an apartment, so I was required to walk Pilah 4 times a day. On my walks around our quite neighborhood, I met a young girl who was from the Czech Republic. She lived in our apartment complex and worked in North Texas. She was young and H-O-T, hot. So, I befriended her. (As most of you know, I only associate with HOT, sexy women...so, if you are one of my friends...consider yourself HOT!) One day she told me she was being transferred to England because of her job. She wanted to take Bobo with her. But, he was really old, and she didn't think he would survive the plane trip nor the 3-6 month quarantine that was in effect at the time. I felt bad for the dog and offered to take him in. Besides, when you have one dog, adding another dog to the mix is pretty easy.



So, Bobo became another member of our family. Bobo was much different than Pilah. Pilah is a very stand-offish type dog. In fact, he's more cat like than dog. Pilah never wanted to be pet and kinda just did his own thing. Bobo, on the other hand, was the opposite. He required more attention and always wanted to be pet. We enjoyed having him around because he was just always so damn happy to be alive. Occasionally, when Jude was learning to walk, Bobo would growl at Jude or even snap at him for stepping on him. But, we just took it all in stride and loved Bobo and all his quirkiness.



(Oh, since Bobo's mom was from the Czech Republic, Bobo didn't know English. I had to learn commands in Czech in order to communicate with the dog. But, after 4 years, Bobo became deaf and only responded to hand gestures. Crazy, huh?! A long haired wiener dog mix mutt that only speaks Czech, only I could be blessed with such a creature!)



So, after Bobo's mom was in England for 3 years, she came back to the states. But, she ended up moving to Mississippi for her job. We kept in touch. I would always send her pictures of Bobo. Bobo was our dog and we kept him. Bobo was old, and we thought we should keep his world constant...after all, we thought he was going to die because he was so old. Needless to say, Bobo never died! During every vet visit, we were told that Bobo was very old and probably wouldn't make it another year....boy, were they wrong! Bobo survived 4 more hotter than Hell summers in North Texas. He endured being chased by Jude and survived. He survived surgery to remove non-cancerous tumors on his belly. Bobo was diagnosed with a pretty severe heart murmur, arthritis, cataracts, deafness and had horribly bad breath. Because he was so geriatric and had a bad heart murmur, the vet refused to give him his annual shots for rabies and parvo for the last 3 years. She was convinced the shots might kill him. And, when we discovered that we were moving to Japan, the vet thought we should but Bobo down. We were crushed when our vet told us to schedule an appointment to put Bobo to sleep. She thought Bobo wouldn't be able to adapt to a new owner because of his age, blindness, deafness and arthritis. But, there was no way we could kill our wonderful wonder dog, Bobo. He was part of our family and part of our lives. He was so happy to be alive and to pee on trees. We just couldn't do it. So, I e-mailed Czech Girl and she came to the rescue. She drove all the way from Mississippi to pick up Bobo. Of course he didn't recognize her, but he hopped into her car and drove off into the sunset. We mourned our loss, but prepared for our move here. It was sad to walk into our little house in North Texas and not see Bobo's wet black nose. It was depressing to not hear the little guy bark at us every time we walked into our house. The silence in our house was deafening.





There are some people and things in your life that you never forget...and Bobo will be one of them. He was a great dog...cherished and beloved. He was like an old man that resided with us and required nothing but kibble and hugs. He would bark for 15 minute stretches for no apparent reason, after all he was deaf. He would fart and make weird noises at night. But, he would still smile, beg for table scraps and would curl up with you in bed to snuggle. He truly was a great and fascinating dog. I'm glad we got to keep him for those 4 wonderful years. We have countless pictures of him in our apartment to help us remember him. But, even without the pictures, we could never forget such a wonderful, lovable dog.





Bobo is still alive and doing great in California. This is what Czech Girl wrote about him this week:

Bobo is doing very well still, little slower now that it's getting warm outside, but still good. He has a doggie door now in our patio door (what a great investment that was) so he goes outside to pee in his 2.5-by-24 foot grass yard behind the mobile. He's already killed about half the grass so we might have to replant the grass every year, oh well, but he's happy, he loves to go outside all the time, he just sits on the porch and "watches" traffic over the fence, it's so cute. He sleeps on the bed with us, it's more like we sleep with him, he takes over the center of the bed and we are stuck on the edges, but it's all good, he likes to snuggle himself up against your back so then you are trapped there. And he has a tendency to fart really nasty smelling gas, the whole room stinks, but that has gotten better. The most recent health problem we have is the discovery of 2 lumps on his chest for which we are seeing the vet on Tuesday, one of them feels semi-fatty, but the other is harder, so we'll see.

***(By the way, Felix aka Pilah moved in with YaYa and PoPo in south Texas. He spends his afternoons basking in the sun or fishing with PoPo. He enjoys rattle snake hunting and sea gull chasing. He seems to LOVE it there.)