I think there are tiers of pets as you grow up. There are the ones that you are too young to remember that well and don’t really remember mourning their loss, the ones that come and go without putting those soul roots down in your heart, the ones that happen when you leave home and while you love them… they are more like your replacements and your parents answer to empty nest, and then there are your pets. Your childhood friends and constant companions, the ones that will always be remembered and never be replaced. I guess as I think back on my childhood there are only three real animals that fall into this category.

First, there was Maggie. Maggie was my yellow lab. She was neurotic as neurotic can be. She was skittish and was constantly frightened by loud noises or intense situations and when frightened she would jump the 6 foot fence in the back yard and start running. Fireworks could cause her to be gone for days. Maggie joined our family when I was a kindergartener and the older she got the more she became mine. She slept in my room. On my bed. With her head on my stomach. She was my dog. My baby. It didn’t matter how crazy she acted because she loved me. She was always there when I needed a friend. Always willing to be lay beside me and silently comfort me during those tell-tale junior high and high school years. So when it came time to put her down when she had become paralyzed and was in constant pain, it was my choice. It was my turn to be the last to say goodbye and thank her. You see pets in my family aren’t really outdoor four-legged animals. They are family members. I cried harder for the loss of Maggie than I remember crying for my grandmother. Not because I loved her more, but because she wasn’t there to lend her silent comfort to my tears. She had made it through my whole pre-college school career with me. Guess it was time for her to go… guess she thought it was ok and I didn’t really need her anymore. Somewhere deep down, she’ll always be missed and I would never have been ready.

The next of our one-of-a-kind pets is Boomer. Boomer was the black lab we bought for my dad in 1992. He was my dad’s baby. It didn’t matter if he was 110 lbs, he believed he belonged in my dad’s lap. The cool thing about Boomer was he was always happy. Always wanting to play. Always affectionate. My brother loved him. If he claimed a dog, it would be Boomer. From stories of Boomer defending our house from wannabe gang-bangers while we were on vacation to my brother using him as a personal sleigh while we were in Ohio, Boomer was just cool even to the very end. My dad found him asleep in his bathroom and buried in on the back of their property. It was fitting. A real burial for a real family member. I know my dad still misses him and the playful power of strength he was.

We lost the last of a generation of childhood pets today. While Maggie treated Boomer like he was her own, Boomer had a best friend, Wu. Wu was our Siamese cat. I may be prejudiced, but he was the coolest cat ever. He was Zac’s. He loved everyone but had a special place in his heart for Zac. Wu acted like a dog due to his closeness with Boomer. He preferred dog food and almost barked when he wanted something. Wu was a beast. He was massive and definitely was the head-cat in any neighborhood we ever lived. He never seemed to stop purring and even when he cried there was a subtle purr there. When Zac was in college and would call home, Wu would nuzzle up to the phone to talk to Zac. Wu and Zac grew especially close after the passing of Boomer. It was almost as if once Boom was gone, Wu lost some of the strength to continue on. If one cat had ever been heartbroken for the passing of a dog, it was our Wu.

One of my favorite stories about Wu happened shortly after we moved back to Willcox from Ohio. We had been living with Titi Minnie but had finally found a house to move into near the high school. One of the first mornings after we had moved in, we had put Wu in the laundry room and somehow I had not closed the door securely enough and he had escaped. I was devastated and riddled with guilt. Here we were in a new house back in Willcox and had lost Wu. How would he know how to get home if he wandered away? Would he get home? So we put up fliers everywhere and made announcements on the radio that we had lost this cat. About 5 weeks after losing him, a man called and told me that he had found my cat and killed him. My parents calmed me down and told me that he was probably still alive and that the man was just evil but that had helped to grow that doubt in the back of my mind that we would ever find him again. Well after about 9 weeks, one of our family friends who live a few blocks away called and asked if we were still missing a cat. We confirmed that and described Wu. She was quite sure he was at our pastor’s house a few blocks from her house. You see we used to live across the street from the parsonage and after living in Ohio for the past few years he went to the only house he knew and had grown up in. So mom and I walked as fast as we could to the parsonage and found Wu screaming into the window of the pastor’s kitchen. JoAnn, the pastor’s wife, said he’d been their the last few days yelling at them, begging them to tell him where we were. I can’t tell you how thrilled and relieved I was in that moment to have him in my arms again. Our prayers and hopes had been fulfilled. Wu was home.

We found Wu dead today. He was 16 and had been declining rapidly lately and hadn’t been seen since Thursday. We wondered if he had gone outside to die or as prayed to heal himself. My brother and I were home and desperately wanted to say goodbye. But even with all our hoping and searching we didn’t get the chance to to before dad found him out in the backyard in the old dog house forever asleep. Dad and Zac did give him a proper burial… Its heartbreaking and I’m pretty sure there have been family members who I’ve mourned less for than Wu.

Three childhood friends gone. Its like a chapter of our family history that has been closed. An emptiness and quiet heartache has settled over the house and as I pack to return to my adult home, I feel like I have unfinished business. Unsaid goodbyes and thank yous to issue. But he knows and hopefully is back with his buddy, Boomer…. as Uncle Jeff would say, “Wu and Boomer: Two Old Friends”