You know I’ve made a lot of friends in my life and not a day
goes by that I don’t thank the good lord for that. There is a big difference
between living on and existing on this earth and I truly believe that a man
with no friends only exists. But I want to take this story in a different
direction when I talk about friends. I want to put my human friends on the
backburner, if only for a few minutes and talk about my four legged friends.
I have been blessed with many dogs over my life, just as I
have been blessed with uncountable human friends. I do find one small but
unforgettable difference however and this is it. When the chips are down the
four-legged friends will never forsake you. I have one sitting on my feet right
now as she often does. She has no idea what I am doing and you know what she
doesn’t care either. She just wants to be close to me. If I get up and leave
the room she follows me. If I go away and don’t take her with me, she sits by
the back door and her look tells me she is disappointed in me. I’ve
disappointed people too in my life. Sometimes on purpose and sometimes not. But
the big difference here is when I come home to my dog, instantly all is
forgiven and just that fast. Not always true with humans.
Gus my Chocolate Lab of fourteen years died at my feet a
couple of years ago. I was already suffering with a death in the family and so
this just added to my grief. But you know I was strangely calm that night. As
much as I love my dogs I won’t rate them up there with family members or very
good friends. I remember putting him in the back porch because it was late that
evening when he died. I slept fitfully that night and the next morning when the
sun came up I got my shovel and dug his grave where I had already visioned it
being. Then I wrapped him in a clean blanket and laid him in the hole along
with all of his favorite toys. I knelt there in the dirt and cried and thanked
him for all the good times we had together. Oh there were bad times too, but I
prefer to remember the good things in life and not just with dogs. I needed to
be as forgiving with him as he always was with me. A few weeks later I bought a
small rock marker with his name on it.
Now today it’s Mollie. I’m seventy-two now so it’s safe to
say if she lives a normal life she will probably be the last dog for me. With
any luck maybe we’ll both check out at the same time. Dogs are a lot like
humans in one other way. They usually grow up to be about as nice as you want
them to be or as bad as you let them to be. It’s been said, “You can’t teach an
old dog new tricks.” Now I bet there are some wives out there that can tell you
some tales about old boys too.
For now Mollie is a work in progress and I’m enjoying being
part of that project. I’ve learned over the years that you want to be careful
about teaching your dog something that you might regret because unteaching them
is a whole lot harder then teaching them. I don’t like being embarrassed by my
dog because I know that smart people see that as a direct reflection of me and
you know what? They’re right.
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