Megan Again: Weekly Column

​Megan Again
By Megan Wirts

I introduced my 8-year-old son to Old Yeller today. (Spoilers to follow…but really the movie is older than my parents, you have had plenty of time to see it.) He loved it from the very beginning and I could tell he was really feeling it when Old Yeller got into the fight with the coyote. He was so upset when the dumb little brother tries to get into the shed where Old Yeller was being kept, my son started yelling, “NOOO! Don’t go in there! He probably has rabies! This isn’t fair! WHHHHYY!?”. 
When Travis is forced to put Old Yeller out of his misery, the tears fell from both of our faces and our hearts were broken. Then he was very concerned about our own dog, Bosco, the most adorable, hilarious and awesome Aussiedoodle that has ever existed. He wanted to make sure he had his...

---

 ...rabies vaccines and wanted to know if it was possible for a dog to live for 200 years. Like a good mother, I reassured him that Bosco was vaccinated. Not gonna lie, I had to check to make sure he was up to date. He is. I’m super proud of myself for being on track. Go Megan!

And who knew if a dog could live for 200 years? It hasn’t happened yet, but heck, science is advancing every day. I had to give him a little hope after watching that heart wrenching movie.
​
Watching a movie like Old Yeller reminds me so much of my childhood. Well, minus the whole beloved dog getting rabies and having to shoot it thing. It reminds me of how I grew up in the country surrounded by farms and a menagerie of animals. I always had a kitten from the barn to play with or a newborn baby calf to feed. We always had beagles around. They were my dad’s rabbit hunting dogs, but we got to play with them and love them too. Once we even had a pot-bellied pig that lived in our house named Katy Patoots whose mere presence caused the death of the guinea pig named Charlie He literally saw her, tipped over and died. It was quick. RIP Charlie.
Our home seemed like a zoo most of the time. We had gerbils, birds, fish, rabbits, pigs, cats and dogs. There were always so many animals and I loved it.
I’m also reminded of how much I love my dog. Gosh darn I love this dog. My kids love him. My husband, a self-professed cat person, loves him. We have had other dogs in the past, but none of us have ever bonded with one like we have with Bosco.

For me, it is because of the amount of time I have been able to spend with him, but mostly it’s because he is just the best. He knows when I am not feeling well and won’t leave my side when he senses it. He is also the only one in my house that actually goes to bed when I tell him to. He is the one I tell all my jokes to first and he thinks I’m hilarious.He is my Netflix watching, nap taking, snuggle buddy. He is always here for me.

When we got Bosco, I had just had surgery on my stomach two weeks before. Why in the world would you get a puppy while you are recovering from surgery, you might ask? Apparently I enjoy being punished and being in pain. My reasoning was that I would be off work for a few weeks and would have time to potty train him and bond with him. Honestly, he was the easiest puppy I have every potty trained and he hardly kept us up at night. Seriously, the best. He was a dream puppy.

We had Bosco for just three months when I had to leave my job and for the past year he has been my constant companion and source of entertainment. I’m not even mad at him for chewing up the legs of our dining room chairs or digging giant holes in the front yard. He might bark at every living thing or inanimate object that comes into our yard or anyone of my neighbor’s yards, but he sure as heck has kept the weird vacuum salespeople away.
My son says having Bosco is like having a best friend that always wants to play outside no matter what. Oh my heart strings!

We just love this dog so much. Not only is he able to clear out a room faster than someone yelling “Fire!” in a movie theater with is rancid Bosco Butt Bombs, he is a great sounding board to every crazy idea that pops into my head. He also is so in tuned to me that he puts his head in my lap when he knows I am not feeling well. He is right beside me every night helping to tuck the kids in to bed.He sits with me while I sip my coffee and scroll through Facebook every morning. We play with the B-A-L-L when the weather is nice and he runs through the yard with such wild abandon and joy that it is literally contagious. He tries to be big and bad and has a loud bark, but he is really as gentle and sweet as can be as well as serving as my son’s hole-digging, dirt-tracking, mess-making partner in crime.

He is just such a good boy.

As in ‘he’s such a good boy, yes he is, he is a good boy, isn’t he?”

​