I wrote this a few weeks ago to honor my dog Badger who both my parents and I raised in love and laughter.
Enjoy, Gail
Badger Hand, our beloved Sealyham terrier ran off to heaven yesterday afternoon.
He was almost 15 yrs old.
Badger was born in Colorado with a long name that started with “Uno”. When I met him after he moved to San Francisco, he lived with my neighbor Rick who was an airline pilot for United. Rick left him for 10-12 hrs at home a lot in a cage. I used to hear him whine in his apt and convinced Rick and his boyfriend to let me adopt him. One time when my parents came to visit they saw that my garbage disposal had the word “badger” on it and thought I named him after the sink. Quite frankly I don’t remember. He also answered to “Muffin Boy” and “Scruffy”or the shake of a leash when he was little.
For a year Badger traveled all around California with me in my Jeep when I was a sales rep. He met coffee retailers who greeted him with water and Milk bones though like his mother Gail he preferred tea over coffee..
Badger was my team’s mascot when I coached a youth softball team in San Francisco
He also cheered for the Bay to Breakers on more than one occasion. It was so hot that May I got him a summer cut early so he looked like half a Sealyham..
Badger was allowed to sit on the bema in a San Francisco Temple that my girlfriend Janice ran. The only dog to this day who proudly held this honor. She gave me this statue of a Jewish Sealyham Terrier.
Badger then moved to L.A. with me and soon after was adopted by my parents (living the life of Reilly) at the beach in San Clemente, where he lived there for 7 years with his brothers Skippy, Bear and sister Smokey. 
He became devoted to my parents for the next 12 years. and they to him. Badger LOVED to dig at the beach and walked on the trail by the railroad tracks many a day with my parents.
When my brother Bruce got married in Guerneville in 1995 Badger was in atten
Eight years later he moved to Reno where he enjoyed the mountains and snow half the year. He had a next door neighbor (West Highland Terrier) named Mattie he adored. His feline sister Allie came along soon after and they lived their lives happily with my parents another 8 years in Reno until moving to Oregon last year during the worst snowstorm of the century. My friend Jo carried 33lb badger out and I don’t know when I have ever laughed so hard. We could hardly see with the blinding snow, but Badger was happy as a clam. If I could attach the video of that day I would. In Oregon, he recently acquired a Lab brother named Zach who he tolerated. He came to love Allie and kissed her hello almost every day.
Badger loved being petted often, he loved the beach, the mountains, but he especially loved the car. In the end he didn’t even care if it was moving, he just liked being in the car.
Sometimes our love of travel stays with us until our final trip.
I hope that Badger is riding along in a car with his head stuck out the back window, wind blowing in his face surrounded by a pile of milk bones.
Comments