Buddy.

If any one knows my family even a little bit, you understand how much we love our pets.

Honestly, it gets a little crazy at times - but the wonderful kind of crazy that you would never change.

Horses, dogs, goats, cats, rabbits, even fish - we're lovingly attached to them all.

however

Buddy was on a completely different level from any other Lowery animal.

Golden Retrievers are known for being the sweetest tempered dogs, but Buddy wasn't just sweet.

He was an incredibly intelligent and personable animal.
He should've been a lap dog - he just wanted to be near you; at any time, all the time.

I remember the day Buddy came into our lives.

For my brother, Grayson.

My brothers and I were watching Saturday morning cartoons in my parents' room

when little baby Buddy came tripping in.

No one knew what that little bundle of fuzz would mean to us -

 what an impact he would have on our lives.

He was supposedly the runt of the litter - 
his later 110 pound average body weight told us differently.

Buddy wasn't one that you could play fetch with. Oh, he loved a ball - and he loved you throwing it for him. But what he loved more was keeping it from you, and all to himself.

Buddy was always investigating. When a new person walked into the house, you can bet that he was the first person to greet you, tail wagging and feet prancing around you until you gave him the acknowledgement and attention he was seeking. As a puppy, I remember him getting his head stuck under a big piece of furniture, who knows what he was trying to get at then.

In his puppy days, we kept him in a corner of the laundry room, blocked in by a baby gate. The first week or two he cried incessantly all night long. One night I went and kept him company.

Buddy definitely wasn't the most graceful of animals. As a puppy he would fly and flop about, as all little dogs do. Knocking things over, as well as running into them. That continued as he got older. His overall excitement at things in life often left him slipping on the floors.

For my seventeenth birthday, I got two baby goats - Stella and Miley. 

They were only a week old; smaller than Buddy was when he was a puppy. 

Seeing Buddy with them was one of the most tender, precious memories. 

Our other dogs, Grace and Caleb would sniff them excitedly and try to play with them.

Not Buddy. 

Instead, he would lick them, gently and curiously. Stella and Miley were never scared around Buddy. When I fed them early in the morning and late at night, Buddy went with me. He had a way of making you feel safe. You were never alone if Buddy was around. His presence was too strong to not be felt. 

He loved his toys. 
Sure, balls and sticks, he would play with it all. But give him a stuffed animal, and it would be like giving a woman a huge diamond. His favorite toy was his lamb, "Lamby." We went through several lambs, because Buddy didn't just like to keep his toys from the other dogs as his prize, showing it to any and every one who he could show, he also liked to shred them - pulling out the squeakers and all the stuffing. I can't tell you how many times I performed surgery on Lamby, the orange bear, the mallard duck, ReinyDeer, and so many other stuffed things that Buddy would find and claim as his own.

Air vents were Buddy's saving grace in the summer. In the sweltering Georgia heat, his thick gorgeous coat kept him always panting. When he was a puppy he would simply sprawl his whole body across it. But eventually he grew so that only his head would fit.

He loved the outdoors. Laying in mud to cool down, or just rubbing his body in the grass with his feet kicking in the air as he went. I can still see him, running full force towards the house when we would call him inside.

Golden Oreos.
Buddy loved them.
And every time Grayson would have one, so would Buddy.

Every night at dinner, when my mom would ask my brothers and I to help her clean up the kitchen, Buddy would be there. As soon as he heard the dishes being cleared and rinsed, his place was right by the dishwasher, licking all that we had missed.

Buddy was a friend to anyone. Just ask the neighbors in Louisiana. This summer he would wander outside and visit them - even going so far as to walk in their house and lay down. 
Or say you had a bad day. Buddy knew when people were upset. There was nothing like that sweet dog laying his huge head on your lap - with his big brown loving eyes looking up at you.

Technically, Buddy was never allowed on the furniture...

can you see how well that worked out? ...

No one ever wanted to say no to our giant teddy bear.

Right when Buddy got out of puppyhood, we found out that he had Lymes Disease, and for a while we thought we were going to lose him. But Buddy wasn't about to leave us. He had a lot more life to live, more memories to be made with us. The vets told us that it would shorten his life drastically - that he would only live to be six or seven at the oldest. 
Buddy would have been twelve this May.

He was huge. 
People's first reaction was to be scared of this massive dog who would come gallivanting up to them, completely unhindered. 
 Although his deep, booming bark sounded ferocious, he'd simply lick you to death.

There's an old table in our house that we used to have in our kitchen. 
One Thanksgiving, my mom was putting baking pans of crescent rolls on it right before they went into the oven - just because there wasn't much room any where else on the countertops. As you can imagine, the kitchen was a little busy, and no one was really paying attention to Buddy's presence. 
His head was table level, and he proceeded to eat an entire pan of crescent rolls. 

Grayson's birthday one year, a similar event occurred. 
Same kitchen table - but with a cake on it.
An entire side of icing was licked clean by Buddy.

There was nothing Buddy hated more than us leaving.
It didn't matter if it was just for the afternoon, a few days, or a week.
When we left, he would always watch us with sad eyes from his big bed, surrounded by his toys. And you always said goodbye to him. When we would get back, his happiness to be with us again was always heart warming. He loved us all.

Growing up, my brothers and I would play in kiddie pools in the summer.
When we got older, we continued to have them - for Buddy. 

He would sprawl himself across the floor - never in a convenient place.

But you couldn't get irritated with such a sweetheart, as you walked by he would always thump his tail just to say hello.

No matter what you were doing, Buddy wanted to come with you.

When I did painting projects outside, Buddy would join me.

When Nathan practiced soccer in the yard, Buddy would be close by chewing on a stick.

When Mom and Dad did yard work, Buddy would sprawl out underneath a tree.

And when Grayson did anything, Buddy would be there. 

Sleeping, reading, eating, whatever Grayson did - Buddy would be at his feet or by his side.

If you ever stopped petting Buddy, his paw would reach out at you.

For anyone that didn't know Buddy's motives and likes, they would pass it off as him trying to shake.

Nope.

 Buddy just wanted you to love on him.

See this Christmas reindeer? It was a present from one of my friends.

Two years ago, Buddy found it in a bag of toys I was packing up.

He got it out of the bag himself, and I didn't have the heart to take it away from him.

He was so proud of his new prize.

"We give them the love we can spare, the time we can spare. 

In return dogs have given us their absolute all."

Roger Caras

While Buddy was definitely the family dog, he and Grayson had something more than that.

To put it plainly, Buddy adored Grayson. 

Utterly adored him. 

Some of the most precious moments were when Grayson would come home from college, having been gone for weeks or months. Buddy's entire being would light up -  and he would whimper like a little puppy again, out of pure joy and excitement. You could find him with Grayson. 

Buddy knew he belonged to Grayson.

Whenever we had people over, they would obviously meet our dogs as well.

Everyone's favorite dog was always Buddy.

When our cats Ducky and Simba were kittens, Buddy became their adopted mother.

They would curl up and sleep in his soft fur, and then when they woke up and were playful, they would play with his hair, his paws and his massive furry tail as it thumped on the floor. 

Last summer, Grayson lived in Athens. When we visited him, we couldn't bear to leave Buddy behind yet again. So instead, we created his own little throne for him. I don't think he particularly enjoyed the car ride, but he was sweet and patient just the same, with the air vents blasting cool air the whole way. 

Out of our three dogs, Buddy was the stabilizer, the comforter, the leader. 

Grace and Caleb looked to him and relied on him.

Buddy, Precious, Buzz, Preshy, Preshy-Boy, Golden Puppy, Buzzard, Fat Boy.

Buddy took the concept of "man's best friend" to a whole new level.

Always loving, sweet, adorable, and happy.

This was Buddy.

This was our dog.

There's always the question of whether or not animals will be in heaven.

And honestly, I don't really know if animals are in heaven.

But Buddy is.