It has been a day of activity, yet calm. A day of thoughtfulness, reminders of good, and reminders that there is a deep level of carring amoung my friends.
I postedto my facebook page about 8:30 this morning that I had found Nicholas had died overnight. The post has garnered 18 responses, counting my own thanks to friends for their condolances. And that is mostly where those should be posted.
I also sent off an e-mail to family, and have received responses there as well.
Nicholas wasn’t always what people would call a family dog. The breed tends to be a one person dog. That said, he was always good with other dogs. There are larger, faster, smarter and pretty much every characteristic you can name about a dog in other breeds, but Nick was all of that to me, and then some. From the moment he currled up on my lap at the adoption agency, to the cries he emited in his dying days, he always looked to me for support, and was always working to be supportive of me. A very territorial breed, he knew when there was a stranger about, and alerted on door bell rings, even if they were only on TV. He wanted me to know that he was on guard.
There is wide debate over whether dogs or cats are better pets. Some look to the alooftness of a cat as a good sign, and the dependence of a dog as bad. I don’t thinkit is quite that simple. A cat selects or accepts a den where it will live. If a better offer comes along, it will almost always take it up. A dog does more than accept a place to stay. The going rage in pet selection and posession these days is to say that you are ‘adopting’ the animal. There are obligations that come with that. You agree to provide a place to live, food, companionship, and discipline. And as far as that goes, it works pretty much the same for dogs and cats. A cat will tell you when it is hungry, or needs to go out, or come in. But beyond that and the coming up to greet and mark you, a cat does not seem to generally recognize the humans in their lives as being significant to their existance. They don’t ‘adopt’ humans, so much as they become familiar with which humans about them do what.
A dog on the other hand adopts it’s human almost as much as it is adopted, and sometimes far more. Some dogs are somewhat indiscriminate of whom they befriend, but once you are friends with a dog, that dog will remain your friend for a long time. If it adopts you, then no matter what, he or she will treat you with respect, caring, and do just about everything in his power to help when the help is needed. Dogs have long labored along their humans. Look at the dogsled races that hppen today, Burmies Mountain dogs pull carts that may weigh several times their own weight. Dogs amoung the America Indians are reputed to have hauled significant loads on hunting trips, and as their tribes migrated with the seasons. They work for our military, our police, and for people with disabilities and conditions that the dogs can alert about. They do not do these things because they are dependent upon us, though that dependence may exist, they do these things because they are as concerned with us as we are with them. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, some wolves and some humans recognized that they were better off together than on their own. That has carried through to today, and some of us are better people for having a dog around, and when our dogs are not around it is often the memory of them which makes us better people as well.
I can not see a long view of my life without there being another dog in it. However I will admit that it is not the first priority of what I think I need in my life going forward. For the moment I will take advantage of the freedom of not having to be home within so many hours to be able to visit with people, go places, and experience more of life. However that is only for now. What the future holds, only the future knows.
Today has included some very much appreciated peaceful contemplation. Some activities involving friends, and pieces of the normal daily life that shows that the passing of a dear friend is not the end of reality. I have many wonderful friends who have expresse their condolances, and many more who will as they become aware of me loosing Nick. If you would like to read more of my experience with both of my dogs, put the word nicholas in the search window at the top of my blog page, and you will see more.
For the next few days, my favorite picture of Nicholas will be on my profile at Facebook. It will be in a photo album there for as long as FB will let it be. As noted earlier, FB, or e-mail are my prefered places for condolances.
Thank you for reading.
-Rusty – kc0vcu – www.facebook.com/rusty0101
