Hoot - This is for you

[Roberta]

After reading your post about the neighbor who shot your dog, I wanted to post this piece. It took me a while to find it. - Roberta

The following eulogy was written by Senator George G Vest during a Missouri lawsuit involving the killing of a dog:

"The best friend a man has in the 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 to us, those who we trust with our happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose...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 maybe the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heels. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one who never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.

A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry wind blows and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may 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 sheep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wing and reputation falls to pieces he is 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 privelege than that of accompanying him to guard him 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 the graveside, will be found the noble dog, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but alert in their watchfulness, faithful and true, even in death"

[Deacon]

As I read Roberta's post I could not help but think of a story involving a dog's love for his master. This is a true story. It happened to my family.
Four years ago this past December 18th I tragically lost my 23 year old son.
He had a dog that he named chemo. He had the dog for about 4 years before he died. When he died his best friend took the dog to live with him. After about a month chemo stopped eating. He was taken to the vet. The vet said that it is not uncommon for a pet to grieve the lost of his master and chemo was showing signs of the grieving process. Chemo greived until he starved himself to death about 4 months after his master died. No matter how hard we tried to feed him he would not accept food that did not come from our son's hand.
A dog's love is true even until death

[Roberta]

I'm so sorry for your loss. How hard it must be for someone to lose a child - it goes against nature.
There's an old grave of a small child in a cemetery near here that has a sculpture of the child's dog keeping guard. There are numerous stories about the child and the dog - I wish I knew what really prompted the parents to post a dog, and not the more commonly seen angel, to guard over their child's grave. - Roberta

[Hoot]

Deacon, my thoughts are with you and your family as well. I have three grown children and three grandchildren. The thought of losing one is a too much to bear. I can only imagine the difficulty.

I enjoyed Senitor Vest's comments Roberta. They ring true. Thank you. It's easy to take dogs for granted. However, my experiences over the past 40+ years that I've raised for sale and/or had dogs only as companions, tell me that they are truly examples of uncompromising loyality and far more complex in their simplicity.

Many say that a dog doesn't feel love and is only loyal to the one who feeds him. They say a dog react's to set stimulus and react's predictably only because their response is conditioned. Deacon's comments prove this observation to be far more complicated than is simply set out in clinical observation.

While I agree with this observation regarding stimulus, I'd say that those who clinically observe a dogs behavior in itself, have missed the true essense of it's being. Through the ages of man, the dog has been by his side to do service. It has thrown in it's lot with man and both man and dog have benefited from the relationship. The beauty of our dog is in his/her simplicity. Our human friends also react to stimulus, however in the complexities are far less preditictable and never without agenda.

I've never concerned myself about being viewed as overly sappy about my relationship with my dogs. To be honest, in very many cases I prefer his company to a large number of humans I've come in contact with.

Although my dog never takes the place of my children, as an important member of the family, he is given respect and knows and respects his place in the scheme of things. He never fails to show his appreciation and is eager fill his role or do his job.

In the rapidly changing world we live in today, where with computer swiftness we must adjust and confront events that are out of our control, the dog remains the same. He asks for very little but returns our love for him with consistent and unwavering loyality. It's hard to beat that kind of deal.

While my family have always kept our relationship with our dogs in perspective, we never take them for granted.

[duane]

here is a wonderful poem about dogs

CREATION
Author Unknown

When God had made the earth and sky,
the flowers and the trees,
He then made all the animals
the fish, the birds and bees
And when at last He'd finished
not one was quite the same.
He said I'll walk this world of mine
and give each one a name.
And so He travelled far and wide
and everywhere He went,
a little creature followed Him
until its strength was spent.
When all were named upon the earth
and in the Sky and Sea,
the little creature said "Dear Lord,
there's no name left for me."
Kindly the Father said to him
"I've left you to the end.
I've turned my own name back to front
And called you DOG, my friend".

[Hoot]

here is a wonderful poem about dogs

CREATION
Author Unknown

When God had made the earth and sky,
the flowers and the trees,
He then made all the animals
the fish, the birds and bees
And when at last He'd finished
not one was quite the same.
He said I'll walk this world of mine
and give each one a name.
And so He travelled far and wide
and everywhere He went,
a little creature followed Him
until its strength was spent.
When all were named upon the earth
and in the Sky and Sea,
the little creature said "Dear Lord,
there's no name left for me."
Kindly the Father said to him
"I've left you to the end.
I've turned my own name back to front
And called you DOG, my friend".

Good one Duane.