When I was 16 my mom’s brother, my uncle Don died suddenly is his sleep, a month later (to the day) our dog, Maggie, that we’d had since I was in 3rd grade died.  A month after that we got Bounder, Bounder brought a happiness back to our family that we had missed since the day my uncle died.  Not the Bounder replaced Uncle Don or Maggie, but he brought a happiness and liveliness back into our home.  We got him at the Multnomah County Animal Shelter, he was 6 months old.  He was like a human!  He was so smart, and entertaining, he made us laugh.  Bounder was Corgie & Sheltie so he had really short legs and long body, my parents used to walk 5 miles a day and Bounder would go with them, in fact when my dad would change his shoes in the middle of the day Bounder would go BALISTIC!  He would start running and jumping because he knew he’d get to go for his walk.  The neighbors used to joke that Bounder used to be tall and my parents had walked his legs down!  When I moved home from North Carolina I brought my cat Luci with me.  Luci and Bounder connected like I’ve never seen a cat and dog do, Bounder would chase her around and drag he around the hardwood floor by her ears and she loved it!  At any given point you could rub Luci’s head and it would be wet with Bounder slobber!  He was a good dog, a good friend, we loved him a lot.  A few weeks ago Bounder got sick, no one really knew what was wrong, after a long series of tests the dr’s decided that his teeth (which he’s always had trouble with) were rotting and poisoning his little body.  So last week they had 10 teeth removed and the dr’s thought this would make Bounder better.  After the surgery he came home and bled a lot more than we expected and became anemic, last night at 2 am my daddy found him on his blanket and he was gone.  My parents are heart sick, as they had really hoped that they would get a few more years with him.  We are heartsick too.  Bounder was a great dog, that did some really funny things and today I had to explain to my almost 3 year old son why we wouldn’t get to see him again till we get to Heaven.  He simply said back to me, “Jesus took Bounder and made him a new dog.”  Good words Tristan!  Till we see you again Bounder, thanks for keeping us company and being a friend.  You will be sorely missed.  We love you.