DOG GONE YEAR
Sunday, June 7, 2020
A year ago, June 7th, a Friday.
Like most routine weekday mornings – up early, walk the dog, get on with my day.
Then off to a breakfast meeting.
Gusta collapsed on our way back from our morning walk.
She couldn’t stand. As I carried her home to where I laid her down, I slipped. Unable to do anything but turn sideways to avoid landing on her – my head broke my fall, then my nose. My forehead hit her ceramic dog dish, my nose hit the concrete. Bruised, not cut, no black eyes, no broken nose.
Gusta lived till mid-afternoon, then breathed her last.
Would she have lived any longer if I’d not had that pratfall?
I’ll never know.
She was 14 – ripe old age for any Golden Retriever.
I’ve missed her company. I’ve missed her inquisitive off-path excursions on morning walks, her interactions with critters we’ve encountered – mice, gophers, magpies, squirrels, and that one encounter with a coyote. She wanted to be everyone’s friend, but mostly she was my friend. The other day I moved a piece of furniture, and there was a tuft of her hair/fur – true to her breed, she shed everywhere.
To anyone considering a dog in your life, the shedding is the only part of owning a Golden you won’t treasure.
I walk alone now. There is no leash-yank to test my rotator cuff, no rabbit-chase to cause me to lose footing on snowy streets, no ‘lick anything that falls on the kitchen floor’ sidekick.
Love and loves come and go, relationships reveal our best of times and worst of times.
But no dog gets fussed because you had a bad day or a disappointment in life.
Because they are always there, waiting for us, to sniff, and lick and cuddle up with us.
Skeptics might say that’s because we feed them and walk them, but those skeptics never owned a dog – for they would learn that you never own the dog, the dog owns you.
And when they are gone, they still own you …
Reader feedback:
Agree completely this could be a time for mankind to change, for the better. Lets hope. One thing I still don’t understand is mans inhumanity to man, since our beginning. I agree with most of this, but my take on the population blossoming , through Oprah, et al and others, is that millions have blossomed, but we are now billions. Lets hope we can take advantage of this chance, more than we ever have before, even with all the economics, etc. that comes with it, LH, Lethbridge, AB
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