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By
the time you get to be my age, you would think I would know better than to do
the following: advise someone on whether on not they should get married, or divorced….try
to change someone’s mind about God or last but not least buy someone a dog.
Seventeen
years ago, my wife and I bought two dogs out of a litter of ten. Then we went
back and bought three more and gave them to friends of ours. We lost contact with
two of these friends so I can’t tell you how these gifts turned out. I do know
that the one I gave to my best friend was his for these past seventeen years.
He named the dog…Rusty.
Well, as you can guess, old Rust bucket died a
week or so ago and now my friend is in a state of mourning. In talking to him
about what happens to dogs (they die) and how to get over it, I can sense that
he is a little peeved about having gotten the dog in the first place and then
having become so attached that his life is in turmoil with the dog’s death.
So,
now it’s my fault.
Well, I’ve got big shoulders, lay the blame on me…..I
can take it.
No, I’m just kidding …he really loved that dog. They traveled
all over God’s green acre and back, bumping along side by side. If there ever
was a great match made up between one man and one dog, this was it. But as we
all know, the inevitable hand of fate has to come into play and we have to learn
to deal with it as harsh as it seems. My friend wrote me a letter and signed off
by saying…… ‘He broke my heart and I don’t know if I can ever forgive him’. Dealing
with the death of an animal is tough. I know I cannot even begin to think what
I would do if something happened to either one of mine. On one hand I am thinking
of buying him a replacement but on the other hand I think it’s best if he decides
what he wants to do. Maybe he is just too old to have his heart broken again.
My
second dog gift story is different. Another friend had a dog that died back in
March….his wife loved this dog and has been heart broken ever since. This was
a special breed of dog and hard to find. So, I’m listening to him tell me about
how sad she is. I look online and find one of these, only problem is that it’s
nearly 400 miles away from where we live. I call the breeder and get a picture
sent to me and tell the breeder I want it, and then tell my wife we’re driving
to go get it. We haven’t had rain in our part of the country in months, but you
know what I’m about to tell you. Yep, started pouring the minute we left the house…never
stopped. So, we finally get to the little town where the dog is located, meet
the breeder…get the dog. This dog weighs two pounds and is four months old.
We
start home. The breeder didn’t have a carrier much bigger than the two pound dog,
so we stopped at a mall and bought a larger one with a leash and a collar. Then
we figured that since the poor thing had been cooped up for a couple of hours
we’d let it out for a walk on the grass.
Still raining.
What happens
next? Dog slips the collar, runs under the car, I can’t bend down because of my
knee surgery, my wife is in a white pants suit, trying to get the thing out so
we can get going. She finally collars the little beastie and he chews up her hand
reaching for him. We throw him into the carrier, find a drug store for first aid
to her hand and head home. Next day, we meet our friends and hand over this little
present thinking they will be so happy. The wife says that she isn’t ready for
another animal so soon. So, we’re left with a dog we don’t want or need. This
is not going the way I had expected.
I spend the entire following morning
calling people I know to see if they want a new dog. No takers.
I’m almost
out of room here, so I’ll make this short and sweet. I find a guy who loves this
breed and agrees to take a look at the one I’ve bought. He starts crying when
he sees it and says he has been looking for one like this for over forty years.
He
puts him in the front seat and drives away. We go home with one less problem.
Total cost of this little deal, about $700 and a couple of days of my life.
As
I’ve always said… no good deed goes unpunished. But I did learn another valuable
lesson. One I doubt I’ll repeat again anytime soon.
© Peary Perry
Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com
Letters
From North America - October 21, 2009 column
Syndicated weekly
in 80 newspapers
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