Light And Day

February 14th, 2006:
I was watching some of the Winter Olympics with my dad, and they were talking about the drunk, Bode Miller.
Dad turns to me and says "Is Bode a good name for a dog?"

February 15th:
When I get home from school, I find that after years and years of begging Dad to get a dog, he finally did.

Confused?

"1/4 Blue Healer, 1/2 Border Colley, 1/4 Australian Shepherd, all equals up to ugly."

He was a cute dog, back then, but he just didn't seem to get some things.

He even made his own word, that shall be known forever as gnowr. (ny ow ruh)

During the summer, we took him out to Barnesville, so he could run around in the McGraff, or whatever it's called, Park.

Bode was known to be a gay dog, because he really, really liked to lick guys.

He stopped saying gnowr at about the same time he would stop wining whenever there was no one around and/or when it was dark.

Bode used to bite at people without doing any real damage, nibbling, to say, which is why Tyler gave him the nickname "Nibbles."
Tyler and I also really liked how soft his ears were.

In the last few months, he became more and more violent, going from just jumping up and catching birds in mid-air to killing squirrels.

The final straw was when he killed the calf.
Over $2,000, a lot of stress, and some joy.

Dad basically killed Bode because, like in Of Mice And Men, Bode would have just, be it accident or not, started killing more and more creatures.

In the end, Bode was what I've been waiting for for years, a dog.
Bode was here for one year, fourteen days, and a couple hours.
There were a lot of good times with Bode, there were a lot of bad times with Bode, overall, there is only one thing I can say:

Good bye Nibbles.

Good Night And Good Luck

A dog used to reside in my household.
His name was Bode (bow-dee).
When we first got him, he was a little slow, but we thought it would just go away.

Bode confused about the snow last winter.

He ended up being very, very stupid.
He wasn't the dumbest dog around, but he was still very, very stupid.
He started chewing up shoes, gloves, and a lot more things.
One day, Bode jumped over the border that kept him from wrecking the house.

He was beaten for what he did to the house.

To this day, he was afraid to go past the imaginary line that the border was located.

Bode would do very stupid things, such as bite the tires of the four-wheeler and get his face run over.
He would also drag garbage from the ditches and fields to our yard.
He would chase people, vehicles, and even farm equipment.

He started chasing birds, catching them in mid-air, and eating them.
He would chase away the only descendant of our favorite cat, Garfield, who has been missing for the past couple weeks.
Last week he killed and ate a squirrel.
So far, Bode had costed over $1,500 over the span of a little more than one year.
I'll just say flat out that I didn't like Bode.

Either this morning or last night, a baby calf was born.
It had managed to cross the fence somehow, and was killed and partially eaten by Bode.

The thing I had been bugging my dad about him doing for months finally happened.

Bode is now lying down somewhere with a lead bullet in the back of his head, waiting for the coyotes to come for his body.