Rudy and Me

What with all the trials and tribulations we're experiencing with our new pup, Huck, we saw that Marley & Me was on last night and decided to finally watch it. Ever since being a kid, dog movies seem to be the biggest tear-jerkers of all... Yeller, Red Fern, My Dog Skip... and now this one. We've put off watching it thinking it would remind us of Rudy Boy too much, but surprisingly, IT WAS LIKE WATCHING THE PAST 15 YEARS OF OUR LIVES on screen. Rudy wasn't quite the trouble-maker, but he was there through all those stages of a young couple's life - career decisions, starting a family, the emotional setback of miscarriage, starting a family again, kids, more career decisions, balancing it all while feeling life's opportunities might elsewhere be slipping away with age... When the dad carries an aging Marley out and into the back of the wagon, I lost it. I recall the same walk with Rudy just over a year ago. Telling him it's going to be ok. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Dogs truly do teach us true love and loyalty. Watching their lives play out at 78RPM is a gift - a lesson - so that we may learn to be good and do good and love and eat and play in the short time we have here on Earth. Take time to be still, but never stop chasing things. RIP, Rudy (1999-2012)