A Toast to Russell

Yesterday the world lost a very good dog. Russell was Ross' dog that he raised from puppy-hood (fit in your hand puppy-hood). Ross got him in high school and for 15ish years, the two were inseparable.

They were two peas in a pod. They even went gray together.

When I met Ross he had one family picture in his bachelor pad: a collage of him and Russell that Meg put together for him. I think she managed to sneak herself into one of the collage photos but just one. It was a photographic ode to boy and dog.

When I first met Russell, we got along great. Nancy said Russell never liked a girl before...but then it later came out that this was because Ross had never brought one home to meet Russell. Still, I choose to believe that Russell knew what was up.

This pictures is from a couple summers ago when Ross taught Russell how to swim down in Lake Austin. Russell sank at first (he was about 100 pounds at the time) but he eventually got the hang of it. That is not to say however that he liked it.

Russell surpassed the century mark in terms of dog years. And never was any dog loved so much by so many people for so many years. Now he's in puppy heaven where I am confident he is ruling as king.

Raise your glass for a toast to Russell, the best dog a boy could have ever had.