Family's Best Point Guard Succumbs to Cancer

Beau Diddly Eversmeyer has played his last game at point guard. He has dribbled his last tennis ball across the deck in Gulf Shores. Beau was looking poorly and had lost weight. He seemed to be wheezing. So when I took him to the Vet last week, it was pretty easy for her to diagnose lymphoma. A biopsy was taken and he was sent home. Since then he had a rapidly down hill course. He got to the point where he could not climb the stairs without severe shortness of breath. He suddenly went blind over the weekend and when I called the Vet today I was informed that the biopsy confirmed that he had terminal lyphoma. It seemed obvious that Beau's days were done. So I sadly took him to Chateau where he was peacefully put to sleep.

It's been a long time since this house has been without a dog, since my senior year in Medical School when we got Biscuit and so we'll miss him for a few days. His memory will fade, but still it is very sad.

Willie Morris may have written the most cherished book about dogs ever, My Dog Skip. In it he comments, "Dogs give continuity to a man’s life; they help hold the fractured pieces of it together." Right now, my world is fractured. Beau is gone. He will not be replaced. As Travis said today, Beau is now Nanna's dog, up in heaven.

Duke