[yortbogey]

All the Good Dogs You’ve Loved Before
By DANA JENNINGS



As I get older, and especially since I learned two years ago that I had an aggressive prostate cancer, I linger even longer and more lovingly over the past. But I’m not just tugged at by the satisfactions of mere nostalgia. In following those lonely and haunted dirt roads back to my childhood, I’m on a quest to try to understand the adult I’ve become.

And that journey down the highways of memory always dead-ends back with me standing in my crib: I’m laughing and being licked in the face by Midnight, our black Lab puppy, as Dad holds her up to me, offering me my first canine baptism by tongue.

What a wonderful place for consciousness to begin, with a giddy and wriggling puppy anointing me for the sometimes rocky voyage ahead. And, in a sense, it’s a perfect memory. There’s the joy of the moment — boy, puppy, father — but it’s tempered by the bittersweet knowledge that the puppy will soon be dead, hit by a car. This is my only memory of Midnight.

I can’t tell you how often I hear dog people say: “If there are no dogs in heaven, I want to go where they go.” What is it about our dogs that gets us thinking about heaven, about matters of ultimate concern? What is it about our dogs that pierces us to the depths of our souls?

If there is a heaven, some sort of afterlife, I like to think of it as a place where we get reunited with all the good dogs that we’ve ever known.

No matter how often it happens, it always makes me smile when our miniature poodle, Bijou, or our golden retrievers, Moxie and Harry, or even a dog I don’t know, raises its head toward me in expectation and devotion. Dogs seek our giving hands in the same way that flowers seek the sun.

As I write, our creaky and cranky Bijou is still hanging in there, snoring and snoozing, begging for baguette crumbs and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, grimacing up and down the back steps, still yipping and yapping in the neighborhood bark club — teaching all of us how to be game, even on our last legs.

I’m hanging in there, too, my cancer in remission, my depression at bay, pondering the future, dreaming of the dogs I’ll love that I haven’t even met yet.

One of the gateways to true adulthood is when we finally understand that even as we live, we are moving toward death. And having a Stage 3 cancer certainly reinforces that knowledge.

And, not to be too melancholy, but when I think of my last memory, however many years distant it may come, I imagine that it would be perfect to be surrounded by family, Hank Williams’s fine Alabama pining gracing the CD player, and to have my life sealed — as it was opened — by the sweet kiss of a dog. Maybe the gentle lick of a black Lab named Midnight … or a miniature poodle named Bijou de Minuit.




Found this today online ......brought a tear to my eyes........
just wanted to share.........
to all the dogs I've loved before.............

We have not to gain his confidence
nor his friendship, he is born,
our friend, while his eyes are still closed. Already he believes
in us, even before his birth.

~author unknown to me~

[Weezard]

Da wife always says;

"If a man has not loved an animal, part of his soul remains un-awakened"




Lucylight always says:

"Ralph!"

Aloha, Y'all,
Weeze

[Warped1]

Here's a cool poem I found today

A faithful dog will play with you
and laugh with you-or-cry.
He'll gladly starve to stay with you,
nor ever reason why,
And when you're feeling out of sorts
somehow he'll understand.
He'll watch you with his shining eyes
and try to lick your hand.

His blind, implicit faith in you
is matched by his great love-
The kind that all of us should have
in the master, up above.
When everything is said and done
I guess this isn't odd
For when you spell "dog" backwards
You get the name of God.

Author Unknown

[Warped1]

This is the one I was really looking for. I've had a lot of good ones, I wish I had them all now.

WARNING - GET A TISSUE BEFORE YOU CONTINUE!
George Graham Vest speaking:

"Gentlemen of the jury, the best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter whom he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us -- those whom we trust with our happiness and good name -- may become traitors in their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolute, unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world -- the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous -- is his dog.

"Gentlemen of the jury, a man's dog stands by him in prosperity and poverty, in health and sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow, and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

"If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death."

[Stoner4Life]

3 generations of springers here.......

The dog on the left (granny) became ill this year w/cancer, curable by surgery so I did it, along w/several other issues I am approaching 4K in her expenses. She's regained incredible strength & vigor and so it was well worth the efforts and expense.

The puppy in the middle I've given to a friend shortly after he had to put his old springer down.

and finally on the right is the pups mom and daughter of granny, this girl is a true hunting dog. very alert and edgy as hell when on fresh scent. she lets me know by behavior whether the bird scent is fresh or stale and she waits for me to catch up before flushing, a real pleasure hunting behind her.......






A Dogs Plea

Treat me kindly my beloved friend,
for no heart in all the world is more
grateful for kindness than the loving
heart of mine.

Do not break my spirit with a stick,
for though I might lick your hand
between blows, your patience and
understanding will more quickly
teach me the things you would have
me learn.

Speak to me often, for your voice is
the worlds sweetest music as you
must know by the fierce wagging of
my tail when the sound of your foot-
step falls upon my waiting ear.

Please take me inside when it is
cold and wet, for I'm a domesticated
animal no longer accustomed to the
bitter elements. I ask no greater glory
than the privilege of sitting at your
feet beside the hearth.

Keep my pan filled with fresh water,
as I cannot tell you when I suffer
thirst.

Feed me clean food that I may stay
well, to romp and play and do your
bidding, to walk by your side and
stand ready, willing and able to pro-
tect you with my life should your life
be in danger.

And, my friend, when I am very old
and I no longer enjoy good health,
hearing and sight, do not make he-
roic efforts to keep me going. I am
no longer having any fun. Please see
to it that my life is taken gently. I
shall leave this earth knowing with
the last breath I draw that my fate
was always safest in your loving hands.

~Beth Norman Harris~

[yortbogey]

EXCELLENT......poem........:th ank you:

most dayz my dogz are my ONLY......friends...........in deed

[Chimera]

Thanks Vort... comforting messages, but I must admit it's almost too much today....