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Buckley's Meadow
our golden boy, waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge

BUCKLEY Golden Retriever February 1986 ~ March 25, 1999 "Good boy. Best boy." Hi, and thank you for stopping by. My name is Colleen Vandermeer, and this little corner of GeoCities belongs to our dog Buckley, who was part of our family in Grand Rapids, Michigan for thirteen years. I made this page in April, a few weeks after we lost him, because I couldn't think of anything else to do with all the things I wanted to say about him. My son Eric showed me how to make the pictures and the colors work. Any mistakes are mine! If you are here because you just lost your own friend, I am so sorry. Please stay as long as you like. There is a page for your pet too.

How he came to us We picked him out of a litter of nine on a farm outside Allegan in April of 1986. My husband Warren wanted the calm one sleeping in the corner. Eric, who was three, wanted the one chewing on his shoelace. Guess who won. We named him after the farmer's old tractor, a Buckeye, and then Eric couldn't say it right, and he was Buckley from then on. He was not the calm one. He ate one of Warren's work boots, the corner of the kitchen linoleum, and a whole package of hot dog buns (the bag too) before he was a year old. The obedience teacher at the community center called him "enthusiastic." We called him other things. But by the time he was three he had settled into the sweetest, most patient dog I have ever known.

Little things I don't want to forget At five o'clock he would pick up his metal dish and carry it around the kitchen until somebody noticed, clanking it against our legs. He slept on the landing halfway up the stairs so he could keep one eye on the bedrooms and one eye on the front door. When Warren tore out the old deck in 1997 we found forty-one tennis balls underneath it. Forty-one! He had been saving them. He went to kindergarten with Eric for show and tell and let twenty-two children pet him at the same time. He was so proud. Every summer at Holland State Park he swam out after the gulls and never once caught one, and came back grinning every time. He was afraid of exactly two things: the vacuum cleaner and our neighbor's cat, Duchess, who weighed nine pounds. When I had my surgery in 1994 he lay next to the couch for six weeks and would only go out if Eric sat with me.

Saying goodbye Last winter he started slowing down on our walks, and in March the vet found a tumor on his spleen. Dr. Hedlund told us that is very common in older Goldens, and that there wasn't much to be done at his age except keep him comfortable. We had two more good weeks. He had a cheeseburger. He had his tennis balls. On Thursday, March 25, Dr. Hedlund came to our house and we said goodbye to him on his blanket in the kitchen, with all three of us around him and his dish right where he could see it. I know he was "just a dog" to some people. He was not just a dog to us.

About the Rainbow Bridge If you have lost a pet, somebody has probably given you the poem called Rainbow Bridge. The girl at our vet's front desk tucked a copy into the sympathy card, and a lady from church mailed me another one. Nobody seems to know for sure who wrote it. It's about a green meadow just this side of Heaven, where our animals run and play, young and healthy again, until the day their people come and they all cross over together. I could not get through it for weeks. Now I read it on the bad days. I like to think Buckley is there right now, lying in the grass with one eye on the bridge, the way he used to watch the front door.

The Landing by Colleen, for Buckley I still step over you at night, halfway up, the seventh stair, and catch myself, and hold the rail, and feel how much is not there. You kept the watch for thirteen years on every door we came through. Rest now, old boy. Somebody else is keeping watch for you.

A candle for Buckley, and one for every friend waiting with him.

Friends who have visited Buckley's Meadow: since April 11, 1999. I never dreamed there would be so many of you. Thank you. Write to me anytime: [email protected] Last updated: Sunday, September 19, 1999 © 1999 Colleen Vandermeer. The angel graphics came from a very kind lady's free graphics page.