Farewell to a dear friend
- Thread starter GTJack
- Start date
Thanks to everyone who expressed their feelings. What a great bunch of friends. We have always had a puppy or younger dog in place such that when an old friend passed the sense of loss was there but different than this time. Martha's health is such that she does not want us to get another dog, and I am such a creature of habit I have had to keep reminding myself I don't have to get up and do things with or for Portia. A different dynamic this time for sure. That coupled with her being the sweetest dog will leave a vacuum for longer than in the past for sure.
fjpikul
GT Owner
Ah, Pockets, you are depriving yourself of a LOT - yet I know exactly how you feel. What's the saying...."It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all."
These departures are gut-wrenching. My eyes tear up reading this thread..... Like many of you, I have been through it too. Those of you that have been to our house likely remember our black lab, Max. He's been gone a couple of years now but lived a very long and I know a very enjoyable life. Still very sad when their time comes. Will always remember him.
But now there's Gunner. Another great one that is just so much a part of the family... Think about it. Think about the quality of folks that we have on this forum and the outstanding quality of life that we can provide to these animals. I'm sure none of them would choose to live anywhere else. Here's a couple of pics of the drab, dull, unspoiled life that Gunner lives....
steved57
GT Owner
Sorry to hear about your loss of Portia. We lost an Aussie couple years ago and now we are dealing with a 17 year old weiner dog. Luckily we have a young terrier and a young blue heeler that are awesome dogs too
Where To Bury A Dog
There are various places within which a dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave. Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub of the garden, is an excellent place to bury a good dog. Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else.
For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all.
If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there.
People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.
The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.
There are various places within which a dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave. Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub of the garden, is an excellent place to bury a good dog. Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else.
For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all.
If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there.
People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.
The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.
Empty Pockets
ex-GT Owner