Eulogy: Operator Down

When DrWho finished residency... we bought a house sight-unseen in Dickson, TN.  It was a nice house but we bought it based on the realities of the coming real-estate collapse... and several other factors were therefore neglected.

One of them... was security.

Because of the layout of the house... I soon came to the conclusion that in the event of a break in an alert or alarm of a barking dog wasn't enough.  I needed time.  I needed something or someone I could count on to not only sound the alarm... but engage the attacker and buy me the invaluable seconds I would need.

I worked on this problem for a long time... but long time readers will know the answer I came to.   I took the amount of money many Americans would spend on a late model used car... and bought a very specially trained German Shepherd Dog named Bonita.

I can't type out all the stories... or even... any of the stories I have of her bravery... skill... or power right now.  I can just tell you I've lost a teammate.  I've lost a beloved friend.  We've lost a Guardian in the truest sense of the word.

I mean that.  If Bonita was not a Guardian... then the word has no meaning.

I honestly don't know how many times Bonita and I swept and cleared that house in Dickson.   I have no idea how many times we swept this one in Bay Minette.  I know she picked up the patterns of each extremely quickly.  And she was always a pro about it.  Sweeping was easy with Bonita.  I trusted her to flush anything out that may be there.. and she trusted me to be there if she needed me.  Though short of Grizzly bear hiding in the closet I seriously doubt she would have.

Bonita was the best family dog we've ever had.  And on top of that... she was a hitter.  She could be simply terrifying. 

But we have friends here...  dear friends who come around all the time.. who told us that they didn't even know she knew how to bark.  They only knew her as this sweet german shepherd who adopted the fawn when the mama deer abandoned her.

We lost her noon today.  Cancer.... spread to her brain.  Back legs weren't hardly working at all. Though even a couple days ago when she could barely walk... when she thought she heard trouble she managed to get up and run to confront it.  God knows how much that hurt to do.

and so... here we are... with a hole in our security systems... that is dwarfed by the hole in our hearts.

I know sometime in the next few weeks I am going to have to sweep and clear the house... and I'm going to have to do it alone.  I haven't done that in over a decade.  But that's one helluva long watch. 

So if you're of the mind raise a glass with me.  To a job well done.  To a friend lost.

So ist brav Bonita.

So ist Brav.