This is a true story about my good buddy, Bub the dog. Bub lived with me for sixteen years. He loved me and my family but didn't get along too well with other people and especially other dogs. He was a huge part of my life and I loved him and I miss him still.
When Bub died, he died at my parent's cottage, so that is where I buried him. It was a difficult weekend; due to the heat I lost not only him but three pet rats. But that is another story. Over the years there was a little garden that my Mom planted on his grave, known as 'Bub's Garden'. As time passed, the landscape was more or less left to nature.
Years later, my parents gave the cottage to my brother Richard and me and ultimately Richard bought my share from me. One day he disclosed a plan to tear down the old cottage and build a new one. What, if anything, did I want to do about Bub's remains in the back garden?
In no time at all I decided that the only thing I
could do was go and get Bub. My daughter wouldn't let me do it by myself... she definitely wanted to attend.
The prospects of finding the actual grave looked pretty bleak. Nothing looked the same any more - it was about fifteen years since he had died. I put myself back into the past and tried my best to landmark the site. I started to dig. In a couple of shovel-fulls of sand, I had Bub's skull looking up at me. I recognized his toothy grin right away.
My daughter and I were ecstatic. Here now was all that was left of Bub - his bones. We carefully rounded up his earthly remains and put them into a green garbage bag and then into a cardboard box. Bub was part pit bull and part collie and he would have been a medium sized dog in life. There wasn't much left of him now!
I took the box home and put it in my office and there it stayed for quite some time. I didn't know what to do with it and I wanted to explore my options. I thought about cremating his remains, reburying his remains and reconstructing his remains. Em did have one good idea I considered and that was to have a 'reliquary', with a curtain that opens up and a light that goes on. I don't think I'll ever talk my husband into that one... ever. But I felt oddly at peace with him right where he was. So... much to my husband's consternation... I still have Bub in the house. I don't want him to know exactly where because he does make noise like he wants to oust Bub once and for all. All I can tell you is, 'he has my back'.
