In Memorium of Buster

This picture was done tonight to remember a dear friend who is dying of cancer. Buster Irish. Buster lives down the road from us and used to live next door. He sort of thinks of our yard as being his yard and is the happiest dog in the world. 99 pounds fighting weight.
(Buster Irish, 9x12, pencil)

After supper tonight I saw his owner Charlene coming up our steps with him and he had shaved patches on the sides of his chest and he looked awful. Lost a tonne of weight and just looking generally wupped. I asked her what had happened to him. Last time we saw him he looked the picture of health and was laughing and his normal self (we see him sporadically before it gets really warm outside because he is inside more then).

He got sick about 2 weeks ago - just after we saw him last - and they found out today that the cause of the fluid on his lungs is severe lung cancer which as a primary tumor is incredibly rare in dogs. He can't breath because of all the fluid on his lungs. Over the last 2 days they have drained several litres of fluid out of his chest. Today he is having a good day and they only gave him about 48 hours to live - the cancer is inoperable - and Charlene brought him so that we would know what happened to him and to give us a chance to say good bye to him She is a wonderful lady to have thought of us at this horrible time for her family.

We had him in and he had some ham and wagged his tail and just rested and let us pet him. He tried to be happy for us but he is soooo tired.

He is a terrific dog and always came over in the mornings to say hello and send us off for work if he'd gone outside for his day and usually after work or on the weekends if his family wasn't home and he was outside he would come over and just hang out with us. And then he'd hear Dave's truck pull in and he'd take off home. Or they'd whistle and he'd take off for home. He was always so happy and always made us smile. We will miss him alot. The world will be missing something important once he is no longer in it.

This drawing was done from a photo I took about 18 months ago. Our flyers had been going missing and we couldn't figure out why. I looked out the window one morning and saw him lying on the front lawn chewing on our bag of flyers. Mystery solved.

We'll miss you Buster.