BUSTER, gone 1 year

It was one year ago today that my dog Buster passed away, literally died in my arms, probably of a heart attack according to the vet. We had just had the last big snow of the season and both he and Shazam my other Australian Healer were running about playing. Like kids they loved the snow, especially Buster who right up till his last moments here in this plain of existence was still spry and full of energy, still acted like a dog 5-6 years younger.

I still miss his energy, his "always happy to see me personality". He was a great being, a great dog amongst dogs. Shazam as well as myself were pretty down for a while after that, but at almost 13 she's still getting on well, the fact that I adopted a new stray cat, Skavee seems to have helped here a lot and they get along well. A few of my friends even suggested that Skavee might actually be Buster reincarnated. I suppose anything is possible since Skavee basically walked in the house one night last november and acted, stayed like he lived here his whole life, but I think Buster was Buster and Skavee is another little soul who's moved into my life, so Buster is somewhere in the big doghouse in the sky where all great dogs go playing frisbee, eating bones and getting his belly and butt scratched all day long.

I was thinking that you can break down your life into strata, blocks of time like the strata of earth, rock and sediment layers, layers of DOG. each dog defines a pretty specific layer or chunk of time in my life. my earliest dogs Rusty, Skipper and Ginger, my first great dog I got myself Sabastion a shepperd/collie mix lived almost 16 years. that time period included me moving from Michigan to Philly, starting my career in comics, almost getting married (glad i didn't) and then buying the house I am now and overlapping with the era of Buster and Shazam whom i got the last year of his life. Buster's life covered another big chunk of time in my life where i had a lot of big and great things happen.

With Shazam still here that time is still running and sometimes I wonder how many more dogs would I have the fortune to be buddy/pack leader too in my life. I figured maybe 3 more, maybe 4 if I live to be an old man. I like thinking of my life in dog-time because dogs are really almost always happy.