A good dog isn’t always the best trained or the best behaved. A good dog doesn’t need to be the smartest or most athletic. A good dog doesn’t even need to be good all the time. A good dog is, simply, the one that subtly yet persistently reminds you of the important things in life. One such dog was Dusty Bottoms, a seventy-pound chocolate lab with a large head and deep howl, who was truly one of a kind.
This is an ode to Dusty, but it’s also an ode to all good dogs. It’s something I needed to write for myself, but also something I also wanted to write for anyone who knows the depth of losing a good dog.
Two months before his fifteenth birthday, we tearfully said goodbye to Dusty Bottoms. He lived longer than most dogs, but it still came as a surprise to us. Despite chronic arthritis and less spunk than his youthful years, Dusty still had that mischievous look in his eye, even near the end. Sometimes life comes at you fast.