Bo Wilson

Let me tell y'all about my Bo.
He was a beautiful black lab with a big diamond of white on his neck. We got him as a pup soon after Jemima died.

Jemima was my protector. She'd just as soon bite you as look at you. I'm talking a defender of her territory! I'm pretty sure she saved us from an attempted break in one Christmas Eve when Blake wasn't home and somebody out there in a big blue van might have some scars to prove it. But that's another story...

Bo was in every way opposite of Jemima. From the day we got him as a pup, he had anxiety issues. I always thought he'd grow out of that when he learned how loved he was but he never did. That's why I wanted to name him "Wilson" after the one on "Home Improvement." You know....the guy that was always hiding behind the fence?

The kids wanted to name him Bo so I named him Bo Wilson. That's a pretty good name around FP, don't ya think? 😉

Turns out, my Bo probably wasn't the sharpest tack in the tool shed. He never ever learned to poop in the grass. Usually it was on the deck around the pool or one morning before my ladies Bible study, he left the ladies a big fat present right at the front door. 💩 "Howdy!"

The grandbabies loved "Bo Bo" as they called him. They loved to chase him and Bo loved to play hard to get.

When Hallie was a baby, she loved for me to tell her bedtime stories about how Bo Bo liked to water the bushes. 🙉🙈 I know, I'm a really cool grandmother, right? 😂😂😂

We had Bo for 13 years I think. He got old so fast....seems like he should still be a young thing!

Bo died yesterday, probably just of old age.

My tender, loving son, David came to bury him last evening. Because I'm unable to get out of bed, I didn't get to tell Bo goodbye but Blake came in afterwards with a most reflective look on his face.

He asked me, "Where in the Bible does it say, 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof?" That's Psalm 24, I told him. So he opened his Bible and began to read out loud. He wept as he read.

"What's up, honey?" I asked.

So he began to give me a play by play of the whole burial he'd just witnessed.

"David laid Bo in the front loader of the tractor and took him down to where he was going to bury him. He laid him down gently on the ground beside where he was about to start digging. Before he started, a big beautiful orange and black butterfly came and lit on Bo's nose. As David began, I thought surely that the butterfly would fly away but it didn't. It sat right there with its wings gently fluttering the entire 12-15 minutes or so that it took David to dig the grave. Never moved away."

"Are you kidding me," I asked!

"No! I kept looking around to see if there were any other butterflies anywhere around. None! Anywhere! I mean, the timing, the place where it lighted, everything about it was just so seemingly orchestrated!"

"Well then, David finished and got off the tractor to put Bo in the scoop and the butterfly flew away. He laid Bo down so softly in his grave and just as he did, the butterfly came back and lighted right where Bo's body had been, as if he were watching the burial. David began to scoop little bits of dirt at a time, slowly covering Bo's body and then packing it down. That butterfly stayed there for the whole entire thing."

Blake said he was thinking 3 things: 1. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." "He even tells the butterflies where to land and for how long."
2. "All dogs go to heaven"
3. "I thought about that magnet you used to have that said, 'Just when the caterpillar thought his life was over, he became a butterfly.'"

I don't know how or IF that even speaks to you but it sure did to us.

Bo Wilson, goodbye for now, sweet pup. I hope you got your wings yesterday!

There's a really sweet GOD out there who knows and cares when a sparrow falls to the earth.

I'm so glad I know Him!