I've had many dogs at many stages in their lives, but due to the vagaries of moving, accidental deaths, fostering others' dogs, etc., I've never had a dog (or cat now that I think of it) that was with me through its whole life cycle except Ruby, and in so many ways she was not really my dog.

So I find myself poignantly and acutely struck by Faulkner's aging. Oh, he isn't OLD yet, but he's slowing down into a mature, middle-aged dog-- a dog of wisdom. And he chooses to be more Hardi's dog than mine. SO why should I grieve?

The alone-time I spend with just F each day, and the time I spend with both F and young Sadie each day-- it just seems like I want to deeply savor every moment with him because since Ruby's passing, his mortality is palpable in a way I have never had to deal with before.

So it is with places and people I love. I had so much uprooting as a child that I never had time or slack to feel and re-evaluate each of those upheavals before the next one had to be survived. I try to follow Corrie tenBoom's wise counsel-- not to hold anything too tight because it will just hurt all the more when our fingers have to be pried off of them in due course. But I try to appreciate these dear ones deeply while I have them in my life, and I guess that is a way to pre-grieve what I know (logically) will someday be lost.


F is such a great dog, and he's been so patient and long-suffering with the indignities of Sadie's forays into playfulness. Last night he calmly wished to hang out, curled up in his dogbed, and wait for hockey goals (and goal-treat opportunities from Hardi). Sadie, OTOH, wanted to wrestle. The more resolutely F declined and politely curled his nose up into his belly, the harder she tried. Finally she pawed his head out of the curl, and so he indulged her with the lie-down-snapping game where they imitate bear fighting sounds until she gets tired out and runs off to flirt with someone or something else. But he never growled, bit hard, or laid his ears back.

I just love that dog... Even Hardi was affected by this dogly wisdom as well.


Here's to all the great dogs anyone has ever known and loved!

~Susan