The Day We Buried Kobs

Kobs was buried on Tuesday, March 14. I wrote this the day after....

It's been raining all week and the weather forecast kept on saying it was supposed to rain yesterday. When we left Pinole, the sun was out but as we approached Napa, it began to rain.

We drove up with Richard's mother and step-father. When we arrived, his dog walker was already there.

Richard went back to where they were keeping him to take one last paw print molding. He warned me that they had to clean him up. While he was in the hospital, he had so many fluids pumped into him for 3 days and his lungs were filled with fluid from the pneumonia.

After they were finished, they brought him into the chapel so we could all say our last goodbyes. They wrapped his bottom half in a blanket but you could still see some splotches on his fur that they couldn't clean up. Other than that, he looked so beautiful and peaceful.

I did better than I thought. I was so happy to see him one more time and be able to plant a couple of kisses on his head. The only time I really lost it was when they were closing him up and everyone lined up to say their last goodbyes.

There were 10 of us there:

Me
Rich
His parents
Dr. Michael McCulloch from Pine Street
Michael Broffman and Louise from Pine Street
Their 2 poodles
His dog walker, Richard
Richard's 2 Rhodesian Ridgebacks, that walked with Kobi every day
Itza, a friend from college
and Theresa, a friend from work

We got to put some of his favorite things with him.

• His blanky that he's had since he was a puppy
• An orange squeaky ball that my mom gave him for xmas a couple of years ago. He took it everywhere with him
• A tennis ball that his dog walker brought. He retrieved it countless times when they went to Pt. Isabel
• A froggy toy that we bought for him from Richard's mom's garage sale
• A piece of a frisbee that Daisy, his best friend, and him played tug o war with. It started out as a whole frisbee but ended up to be a small shard of plastic with a bunch of teeth marks on it
• A little peanut butter tennis ball that Itza found. He left it at her house when we went to go play with her girls
• His green and black water toy that he took to Tahoe and Carmel
• And his favorite treats, chicken jerkies

The people from Pine Street named a Star after him....you know the star registry. It's in the cluster of stars that in latin, is a dog region. It's named "Kobi: Friend and Master Scientist". It was so thoughtful! We always thought he was a star...and now he really is.

I made a brochure to commemorate his life and shared it with the people that came. We made a lot of copies so we can send them out to friends and family.

When we walked down to the site, the rain stopped and the sun came out. With sweeping views of the Napa valley, it couldn't have been more perfect. He's buried in the "Garden Of Meadows," an open field of grass with a beautiful pond.

We all got a chance to toss a flower with him and shovel some dirt. It ended up being a beautiful day to say goodbye to Mr. Kobi.

Night-Night Bubba.....Mommy Loves you....