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Howdy, folks,
A quick bit of business to get out of the way. The Winnipeg Jets season is about to begin with the start of training camp next week, and colleague Ken Wiebe and I are looking for submissions for the latest edition of our monthly mailbag.
Have a question about the hockey club heading into the new campaign? Simply hit reply to this email and we’ll be sure to tackle it. Look for the finished product online next week.
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As always, Kenny and I will be all over the Jets. We already started earlier this week, attending pre-camp skates and talking to Adam Lowry, Dylan DeMelo, Stuart Skinner and Mario Ferraro.
It continued earlier today with top prospect Viggo Bjorck speaking ahead of a team of rookies and prospects heading to Quebec this weekend to play the young guns of the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. (I’ve got that story coming later this afternoon).
And once camp breaks and the 84-game season begins in exactly three weeks from now, we’ll have extensive daily coverage — at home and on the road — that you can’t find anywhere else. Thanks for subscribing; your support makes this coverage possible.
Also, make sure you’re signed up for The Warm-Up, our free, game-day newsletter that gets you set for puck drop.
Hope to have you join us on this latest Jets journey. We’ve got some fun ideas for stories and features lined up, and there should be plenty of twists and turns between now and April/May?/June??
“I loved you for your whole life and I’ll miss you for the rest of mine.” — Unknown
Now, for a more personal matter. My apologies for several weeks of silence on the newsletter front. Our family has been dealing with a difficult situation which, sadly, ended yesterday with us saying goodbye to our beautiful boy, Bodie.
We got him from a rescue nearly 12 years ago, a scrawny little guy who needed some stability and structure.
We gave him that, along with our whole hearts. And he repaid us every day in so many ways.
How cruel that these incredible beings who bring so much to our world are only here for such a short time.
Our Sweet Prince, our BoBo Bear, was a true ladies’ man, as demonstrated by the special bonds he formed with my wife and our daughter.
They truly both said it best in posts they made on social media, which I wanted to share with you since they’re so beautifully written and, I suspect, are relatable to anyone else out there who has suffered a similar loss.
For reference, Autumn and Cassie are two previous rescue dogs we loved and lost. We now carry on with five-year-old Piper and eight-month-old Ruby, but life just won’t be the same without Bodie.
My sweet Bodie Bear.
March 29, 2015 you came into our world. Never having known a family or having had a Mama. But you were so ready for both of them.
We have loved every day with you, and today has shattered my heart in a way I knew it would and yet still takes my breath away.
It was the day we all dread but knew was coming. That cancer diagnosis and tumour growth were rapidly stealing your time with us.
When I found you online from the Manitoba Great Pyrenees Rescue website I fell madly in love with you. Instantly. So much so I hadn’t even told anyone we were already coming to get you from the cheese farm in New Bothwell. They thought it was a trial but I knew it was a done deal!!!
You became my best friend and shadow quickly and I used to tell people you’d happily sleep in my uterus if I let you. You were my boi, my sweet, loving, loyal, protective prince. The rest of the family would be looking out the window or watching the TV but you’d always be looking right at me and I forever loved you for it.
We were so in tune you became a diabetic support dog without any training just to take better care of me. Waking me up dozens of times sooner than my alarms ever did and licking me awake after I fainted more times than I could count.
I will forever be missing a piece of my heart now that you’ve left me.
I hope you and Cassie are rolling around having fun together and that you met our Autumn girl and told her we still talk about her to you and the other girls too.
We will take care of Piper and thank her for helping you when Cassie had to leave, and we’ll make sure Ruby grows into a polite little lady as well. You have my word!!
And as I repeated over and over again until you left this world so I was sure it was the very last thing you heard……I love you
I’ll miss you always.
You’ll be in my heart sweet boy.
Dear Bodie,
As I’m writing this in bed, an hour before our appointment to put you to rest, you are downstairs in the living room. On the carpet in between mom’s feet. Just like how you’ve been since the day we got you — attached to her hip.
It used to make me jealous sometimes, how you would follow her everywhere. I’d get you lying down with me, my head buried in your fur, and you would hear Mom move in the kitchen, and leave me in your dust to go follow her.
It’s always been MomAndBodie, no room for separation. It’s only when you got older, and your eyes stopped working, and your brain couldn’t catch up, that you started tilting your head at me in the way you used to with Mom. You got us mixed up, but I can’t blame you, because a lot of people do these days.
I remember the first time we ever met you. Mom told us kids in the car to be careful, not to grab you, not to get in your face. You were a rescue dog living in the wild, hunting bunnies for food and feeling the breeze on your face. You were used to a life of freedom.
So, I sat on my hands, and looked at you with wide eyes while you sniffed around. They called you ‘Bodie Big Head’ because your head was too big for your skinny little body. Not to fret. We fattened you up quickly.
As I sat there, observing you with worry in my heart that you might snarl and bite, you came up behind me and stuck your big head in between my arm and my side, and panted at me with a smile on your face.
I fell in love then and there.
When we lost Cassie, I was so scared that we were going to lose you as well. You didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, just paced around and cried and stared at the front door, waiting for her to come home. It fills me with comfort to think that when you cross over, Cassie will be at the front door, ready to hear all about the last few years.
Thank you for everything, Bobo. If my love was enough to keep you around, you’d live forever — on the carpet, in between mom’s feet, paws twitching as you catch bunnies in your sleep.
I love you. I’ll miss you. I hope there’s lots of snow up there for you to dunk your head in.
A final thought from me: There are so many incredible animals just like Bodie out there waiting to find their forever home, especially through local rescues.
If it’s something you’re considering, trust me when I say now is the perfect time to adopt. Your life will be more complete than you can imagine. Trust me.
I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about the process.
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