Where We Wandered: An Ode to Bruce, Best friend and Coauthor

A few weeks back, I had to say goodnight to my best friend. Not the usual goodnight I’d said nearly every night since we met just shy of a decade ago, but the long goodnight. The tearful one. The last one he’ll hear me say until whatever awaits us all next. 

Bruce was an amazing dog. I could wax poetic about his legacy. Every member of my immediate family has since adopted a dog since I brought Bruce home, despite the fact we never had a dog growing up. Countless family friends adopted bully breeds after spending time with Bruce. (This isn’t an over exaggeration, either, I swear.) Nearly every member of my immediate family, again, volunteers or has volunteered at an animal shelter as a dog walker; my dad enough that, if not for the constant snapchat updates of dogs and a feral cat he’s frenemies with, we’d be concerned he might have a second family. 

So, countless lives--two-legged and four-legged alike--have been enriched because of Bruce. 

This is not to say Bruce was perfect: he was stubborn and he gave veterinarians hell. He could pull on the leash, or, he could decide a sunspot needed a 75-lbs anchor plopped down on it, and then a pleasant stroll could become an exasperated stand as he worked on his tan. Admittedly, I could’ve done a better job training him, but fortune favored this simple boy and I got a dog who, for any faults, was just sweet to his core.

In the same way I could wax poetic about his legacy in general, I could do so about the impact he had on me, or the depths to which I miss seeing him lounging on the couch or scurrying to greet me at the door after a long day. But I’ll save that well of grief for future writing projects, where if I’m shouting into a void, at least there’s an echo. 

Here, instead, I’ll post some pictures of our wanderings, research and work together.

So here’s to you, Bruce. Coauthor and fellow researcher, who never balked at visiting an abandoned cemetery or forgotten path in some gloomy woods so I could get some scene-setting inspiration. Who went willingly to haunts where ghosts supposedly lingered, and found places to sniff while I took mental notes about the art deco facade of a decrepit theater. Who visited the burial sites of supposed witches and an Egyptian pharaoh and the man who made us enter a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. Who could make any couch a comfortable napping place while I read some forgotten historical account or the works of my heroes. Who, from his perch on the bed in our guestroom, watched as I wrote my silly little stories. 

The White Lady's Castle, Durand Eastman Park

After all our trips here, it was only right my take on the Lady in White story be dedicated to Bruce. This is one my favorite pictures of him.

Burial Site of Rod Serling, Creator of the Twilight Zone

One Monday afternoon Bruce and I went to pay our respects to a hero of ours. We watched "The Grave" episode after, naturally.

An Abandoned Campsite, Near Sodus

Bruce braved some forgotten buildings in an abandoned camp complex so I could get some source material about structural decay.

Burial Site of a Supposed Witch, Maine

On our way to Portland, Maine, we stopped to visit the burial site of a supposed witch. Bruce ate his weight in "butterbug" (lobster) that trip.

Ghost Town in the ADK, on Our Way to Vermont to Visit the Burial Site of a Pharaoh

One hell of a day. We found the burial site, too. (Amum-Her-Khepesh-Ef, interred in Middlebury if you're wondering.)

A Said-To-Be Haunted Cemetery Near Melbourne, Florida

Our last big trip together. Bruce spent some quality beach time and got pulled pork from Flametree Barbecue in Disney.

The Writing Den

Bruce's feedback on stories was always welcome.

The Reading Den

Nothing witty to say here; I miss this.

Mount Hope Cemetery

I could go on, but I'll conclude with this picture. Like the White Lady's Castle or the Erie Canal Towpath, Bruce and I spent countless hours in Mount Hope Cemetery. He stayed busy smelling piles of moldering leaves while I worked out a next chapter, both of us happy to be exploring together.

Good night, best friend. Until our next adventure.