Remembering my boy Marco. 1995-1997
He chose me when he was 7 weeks, the big lumbering goober jumped on top of all of his siblings to reach me.
Wanted him to be trained for personal protection, so off he went to boot camp at 4 months. They kept him for 6 weeks, I could visit to observe him but had to remain hidden as to not to be a distraction. That was difficult, but I got it.
They also had to train me on how to handle him. My goodness, he could do just about anything on command.
He grew to just shy of 125 lbs, yes a big boy.
So, we were ready to go on our work/adventures outside of the country. Marco made going through checkpoints with men in jackboots and automatic weapons, a breeze. They were too busy admiring Marco, they failed on more than one occasion to ask me for my papers.
He was just a year and a half when his behavior changed from a confident boy to a paranoid and jumpy boy. Noticed his hair was falling out in large clumps and he had a sore that refused to heal. The local vet took some blood and the results came a week later.
Marco had a very rare leukemia, it was going to be fast with no cure.
I could not breathe naturally the rest of the day, it was forced. He knew, he knew I knew. We were inseparable for a few days. I took him on all of his favorite places, and he ate all of his favorite foods.
The last walk was to the vet. His kind eyes told me he was going to be okay.
Thinking about you today Marco and every day.
