Buddy, you performed you one task very...VERY well. Your former (and your current) Master is very pleased.
Good boy, Buddy!
Good boy.
Posted on 05/21/2007 7:23:48 PM PDT by uglybiker
I apoligize in advance for being so long winded, but I felt the need to share.
5:00am. I'm up and stumbling around the house like I usually do at this time of morning getting ready for work. Keys?...check. Smokes?...check. Lighter?...check. Monster mug o' coffee?...check.
Okay. I've got all the important stuff covered. I walk to the back door with a quick stop at the pantry to pull out a dog cookie. I walk out the door and something is missing. Normally, at the bottom of the steps, is a largish, wooly, mixed-breed dog. His name is Buddy. During the warmer part of the year (which we have alot of here in Arizona), he likes to sleep out in the yard where the ground is cooler. Normally he can hear me bumbling around the house in the morning, so he comes to the back steps to wait for me to come out. He always knew that 'Daddy' would give him some well-deserved attention and a cookie before he left. That was the daily ritual and I did my best to keep my part of the bargain.
He'd been getting along in years and, every once in awhile, I guess he'd sleep so soundly that he wouldn't hear me, and I'd find him still asleep in the yard right at the back corner of the house. He was there this morning, but when I called him, he didn't move. His body was still warm, his limbs were still limber, but my friend was gone.
And a hole opened in my heart.
No more will I see that wagging tail, those perked ears and that goofy dog grin as he lays with his paws crossed --always right over left-- just behind the back gate. Where he would stay almost motionless until the gate is actually open and "OHBYOHBOYOHBOY! DADDY'S HOME!!"
No more when I open the back door will he squirt in and play Kentucky Derby through the house with the cat. First one leading, then the other.
No more in the spring when the mulberrys flower and all the fuzzy bits fall to the ground and seemingly every #%&$%$# on gets stuck in his fur when he tries to come in the house...
No more will he lay his head on my knee and look up at me with those watery eyes and that disarming 'goofy dog grin' that he had perfected so well. That look said he knew who his master was. And that was all that mattered.....and would Master please give him a cookie? ;-)
Flashback to ten years ago.
November '97. I had recently moved to Arizona and was renting a room from my folks while I was getting myself established. I had just received a sizeable promotion at work and had saved up enough to put a down payment on a house. I was finally starting to move up in the world.
I got to work to pull a weekend shift when the man at the front gate ask me:"You know anybody who wants a dog? He's been wandering around here for two days. I felt sorry for him, so I gave him a frozen waffle I was going to have for breakfast. He likes me now. I call him 'Buddy'." My father worked at the same place at the time and, before I knew it, my parents had driven down, coaxed him into their car and brought him home. (My family has a failing when it comes to stray critters. We all have a couple.)It took the better part of a day to get him to come up to me. But when he figured out I was okay, he wasn't going anywhere. We debated on taking him to the local animal shelter, but I figured that since he was so skiddish, nobody would take him. So, when the paperwork on my house cleared a couple of weeks later, he came home with me.
He still had alot of puppy in him, so there were some problems at first. My utility trailer got stripped of all its wires, the power lead to my AC was pulled off, about two hundred holes showed up in my 'new' backyard, and I got notices stuck on my front door from animal control complaining about a barking dog. But he eventually settled down and even made up with the neighbors. One even told me that she didn't mind him barking so much because "he's not only watching your yard, he's watching mine, too!" Before long, he had truly lived up to his name. What had been some uncaring person's cast off, quickly became my closest and truest friend.
Buddy never was a big fan of the ugly bike. He didn't mind the noise, he just knew that whenever he saw me loading stuff on it, I was going somewhere and wasn't taking him.
Time rolled on. I got another promotion at work, my Father retired and my parents moved to eastern Texas. My folks always seeming to need something either hauled to them or hauled back, a couple times a year I would load up the truck and head east. Me at the wheel and Buddy behind the drivers seat with his head on the console. We took this trip enough times that we had our own scheduled stops. First: the New Mexico Welcome center on I-40. Second: The Love's truckstop west of Amarillo. Third: just outside of Witchita Falls and last: a little picnic area on Highway 82 not far from Paris, Tx.
As he got older, he developed hip displasia and got to where he couldn't climb in the truck. So I whipped up a small foldable ramp so he could walk in. He was always ready to go somewhere.
Flash back to the present.
By now, I was running late for work, so I moved Buddy from the yard and put him in the breezeway next to his dog box. My supervisor was understanding. All guys know what if feels like when you lose your dog. Also my work load was light, so I was able to leave early to take care of the business of what to do with this, that which is all that is left of my best friend.
The soil in this part of Arizona is composed mostly of rock, clay and calichi. I would almost have to rent a jackhammer to dig a proper grave. But my local veterenarian offers a cremation servce. It's not cheap, but I'm not complaining. In a couple of weeks, I will receive a small box of ashes that will be placed where I have a spot prepared under my bedroom window next to a cat who was also a very true friend.
When I got to the vet office, they had me pull around back where two assistants laid out a sling, gently rolled him into it and together (he weighed almost 100 pounds) we carried him inside to the last place I would see him.
I turned around to go and remembered somethng. I knelt down and removed the collar that I had put on him a long, long time ago. He didn't need it anymore.
I was no longer his Master.
There was a thread here the other day that posed the question about whether our pets go to heaven. I didn't read the whole thing, but I seem to remember a poster saying that there is a reason animals are rarely mentioned in Scripture. The Bible was written for mankind. Animals don't need a guide on how to live their lives.It is very scant on details about what happens to animals when they pass on. So anything I can add would be strictly my opinion. You can take it for what it's worth.
And, in my opinion, I believe that our pets are a physical manifestation of our Creator's love for us.
They are sent to us to perform one task, and one task only. And that is to serve their masters.
In doing so, they are also a reminder to their masters that they too have one task. And that is to serve Our Lord and Master.
The sheer exuberence at which they go about their one task is a reminder of how we should go about ours.
And as their lives are but a few short years, they remind us that, as their physical bodies must return to the earth whence they came, so too shall be our fate. And we should make the best of the short time we have been blessed with.
I cannot say for sure that our pets go to Heaven. I will only say that if the hereafter is supposed to be paradise, that paradise would be a bleak place indeed if my best friend is not there to share it with me.
As I type this, his collar is sitting on my desck by my keyboard. I look around the room and I see over in one corner, a very well-chewed rope toy. In another corner is the knot off a rawhide bone next to an old blue blanket he would lie on when he would come inside. I'm not sure what to do with them yet. Do I throw them out or save them for the next dog? I say next for it seems to be my lot that when one of my animals passes, a short time later another one shows up needing a home.
But I will always have a very special place for a largish, wooly dog with a 'goofy dog grin'.
Those will be great dogs.....
a wonderful book, but i cried like a baby : )
All dogs are great - unless they bite, lol.
LOL —— my sister refuses to have a dog (I ended up with one for her sone 16 yrs ago). her younger sons are actually afraid of dogs.
WTF is with people?
heck, I have dogs and had, and had, adn still have and now even have a couple of wolves.
I really do not reccomend wolves to the general population, it it such a unselfish commitment. But the joy from them......priceless.
God says all thing he made return to him.
Heaven would not be Heaven without our ‘children’.
Today, was 23 years ago that my sweet Baby, born into this world a Boston Terrier, but a pure Soul who I loved with all my heart, passed from this life.
There have been so many that I was blessed to have shared just a portion of my life with. I understand your loss.
Keep Buddys things, but not for the next one, keep them for yourself. Something to touch, and hold, and remember him by. The next Soul that walks into your life deserves their own things, just like Buddy got his own.
You are in my thoughts, and prayers.
Buddy is proud of you, and one day you’ll see him waiting for you, and his cookie.
He was a lovely red Merle and he passed last night at 13.5 years of age.
I held him in my arms as life slipped away. I too have a hole in my life, home, heart.
His name was Harley.
Harley saw me thru some tough times.
He was the best friend I've ever had, I miss him terribly.
He was a lovely red Merle and he passed last night at 13.5 years of age.
I held him in my arms as life slipped away. I too have a hole in my life, home, heart.
His name was Harley.
Harley saw me thru some tough times.
He was the best friend I've ever had, I miss him terribly.
I,too, just lost a faithful friend. My heart was broken. I’m so sorry for your loss.
Please accept my condolences on losing a member of your family.
I’m sure all the Freeper pets at Rainbow Bridge greeted him with happy barks.
I’m sorry to hear of your loss, too. This is always a difficult time as our pets are very much a part of our families. Take care, and bless you.
Our oldest pup is 12.5 years old, and I can see her aging almost daily. We’ve had her since she was 8 weeks old, and I can’t imagine what it will be like without her. She is unique.
So sorry, Rabid Dog. I can understand the “broken heart”. It really does break our hearts to lose them. May you have peace and comfort.
Damn UB....I took my boy to the Myrtle Beach bike rally with me last weekend.
I feel for you. The thought scares the hell out of me. I am a pretty tough strong guy, but the thought of loosing my boy......shit.
I wouldn’t even have the composure to type what you typed. He does look like a good boy. Good boy....
So sorry about Harley, glasseye. The grief of loss will be intense for a while, I know. God bless and comfort you.
I wish I could stay and tell you all that I am sorry for your loses but I gotta get off of this thread. I don’t even want to think about it.
I gotta go rub my boy’s belly.
If we didn’t love them so much, it wouldn’t hurt so badly to lose them. There is really so much for which to be thankful, even in the midst of the sorrow, because the love that is breaking your heart, will mend it after a while.
I feel sorry for those who don’t understand, and have never known, the bond of innocent love, and loyal companionship between a good dog and his/her family, don’t you? We are never too young, or too old, to experience the special blessings of joy that come as a result of that experience.
What are the odds of that?
I think it's safe to say that all these posts addressed to me can be just as easily addressed to you.
My sympathies FRiend.
I don’t think there is anyone who has posted here who doesn’t understand, HB. : )
Oh, I’m so sorry. I was heartbroken every time I had to say goodbye to a dear furry family member. And yes, your doggie is in heaven.
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