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Buddy Griffin Strong was an amazing animal and surpassed all ideas I had about loyalty and love. Five years ago I was talked into buying a pitbull as a pet for my boyfriend and step daughter. I was not a fan of dogs, nor did I believe their promises of responsibility toward a pet so I was reluctant but could see that neither of them were going to back down from this endeavor so I readied myself to be a dog owner. I searched through all sorts of adoption agencies, and humane societies but there weren't any pits available. So the home phone calls began... Most of the owners of new pits were from Tacoma and you could hear the echos of evil sounding dogs in the background of any phone call which quickly made me change my mind about the search. Right before I was about to call it quits and let my family know that a dog was not going to be an option at this time; I got ahold of an elderly woman who lived in Yelm and bred beautiful pure bred pits. So that morning of January 21st we took a drive... A long drive to one of the creepiest wooded areas I've ever seen. Out away from everyone in a little rundown house lived a woman who owned 5 pitbulls (at that time) and just had 8 puppies. We all sat down and she began sharing her life story as Luke and Emalie played with the puppies. Her home was full of awards and pictures of her dogs past and you could tell that she was fully dedicated to what she did. We sat around for a long time, probably two hours, watching the puppies play with eachother and even I began to get excited. Now out of the 8 puppies there were two that really stood out to me and they kept clumsily running over to Emalie nibble on her hand and then try to hide under an endtable but they didn't fit so the fattest of the pups would push the table up and his little brother would crawl under the table and leave no room for him. I thought the fat one was so cute and he also had the best coloring. Most of the pups were dark brown, black, or a mixture of the two but the fat one looked like a red tiger. I had made my choice and began nudging Luke to the same choice.
At the end of the two hours we had finally chosen, filed out the paper work, got the pups last shots and dewormer, and said our goodbyes to head home. The ride home was full of excitement and name choosing. So many good names for a dog came up but at the end we decided that Emalie should be the one to name the newcomer to our family so Luke and I tried our best to convince her of what we thought. At the time we were both into UFC and fantasy gaming so you could imagine some very interesting names being passed around but as I looked in the rear view mirror I could tell Emalie had made her choice and was set on what he was to be called. Buddy was named before our long drive had ended and everyone fell asleep from the excitement of the day.
Now we all lived at Luke's parents house and hadn't found our home yet so there was to be some convincing involved to keep not only a dog but a pitbull in the home. A kennel was necessary for Buddy cause we didn't want him sleeping with us forever... Ha. The first night in the kennel at the foot of the bed... The loudest most sleepless nights I've ever endured.... The third night poor buddy slept in the cold garage but his little squaks and crying was too loud... So Luke snuck to the garage and brought him into the room to sleep on a pillow near the closet. Not to much time went by until a cold nose nuzzled its way up to our faces and Buddy slept on Luke's face. This would be Buddy's permanent sleeping arrangement until he found out what a wonderful thing a blanket was.
The training is something Luke doesn't remember... I know this cause a large argument came about with our second dog and me saying I wasn't going to put the same amount of energy into the training and obedience as I did with Buddy (but that's a different story)... Luke thought that he just magically knew how to listen to commands.
Not to say that I remember exactly when Buddy knew all of these things but he did catch on very quickly and from past dogs my family has had he was incredibly intelligent.
Now Buddy was a fat puppy... And that never went away... If I remember anything about Buddy it will be that people thought he was a 'huge' dog and I hope that is how I will picture him as the other memories of the last months of his life fade from recollection.
Buddy's middle name came from Forest Griffin, my favorite UFC fighter of the time... And because he had huge paws when he was a baby that reminded me of a griffin or large taloned creature... And that's what I originally wanted his name to be.
I believe Buddy had a happy life though there was much confusion from the subtractions and additions to our family as time went on but in the end there didn't seem to be much debate that he was 'my' dog/ my first born son :p
He was my biggest worry through the divorce cause I knew I would not be willing to part with him if Luke had decided to take him. I made sure to never even mention it or make it an issue so Buddy could remain with me and Luke never brought it up as well.
So for 5 years Buddy had a good happy home. One day in spring Buddy began to have a really bad cough or wheezing that should not quit... Doctors first thought it was just an allergy but it continued to progress and when they got the tests back realized it was 2 types of cancer. At 5 years old Buddy was diagnosed with lymphoma and spleen cancer.
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