It is a sad day at the GT Joey household today. His beloved dog Bo has passed away. Bo Limongnelli loved his Daddy and riding in the Jag and was 17 years and four months old.
Up until fourteen years ago, I had never had a pet and neither had my wife. At that time I traveled for my career 80-100% of the time and my wife was taking care of her Dad with dementia in our home for six years, and then in a nearby memory care facility for his last six years. She was there at the facility with him every day for six to eight hours a day, sometime longer. As I saw her Dad start to decline, I could only imagine the sense loss of taking care of someone that my wife would experience when her Dad passed. I then came up with the idea that we needed a dog for her to care for, someone/something to continue to care for and that is when I convinced her, despite her misgivings, to acquire a 2 1/2 pound Maltese puppy.
Over the next fourteen years, that little guy wormed his way into our lives, our hearts, and our king-sized bed. Up until then when a friend would tell us that their dog had passed away, we didnāt understand their sense of loss. When Buddy passed away last May, we both were devastated, we understand now what it mean to lose a pet.
A few months ago there was a thread about dogs passing away and I used it as an opportunity to post Buddyās picture. @j_limongelli posted something at that time, that I have now repeated to two friends whose dogs passed away recently. His post was -
When my Mom died I cried.
When my Dad died I cried.
When my dog passed away I cried for weeks.
This is so true. Dogs have a way through their unconditional love and pure joy of seeing you, even if youāve only been gone for a few hours, of becoming closer to you than most other humans in your life. Iām certain that like us, Joey spent more time with his dog than he did most other people in his life.
