I've always had a dog and I have always liked them, enough to study them for my PhD. Some people really like dogs. Much like a dog eager for their owner to return home, they are eager to be with or talk about their dogs and they would do anything for them. I think that it is safe to say that over the thousands of years that we have domesticated and selectively bred dogs they have formed a bond with us, but we have also created a connection with them. No doubt the woman I saw today pushing her dog in a stroller understands this connection. Sometimes in cases like these it is really easy to look at this connection and think it is silly and even mock it. There are other times when you are reminded of that connection. This happened to me last week because of my dog Obi.
Obi was my roommate back home. When I have been away from home there have been times that I have missed having him around more than some people. I can't count the number of times that I have been on my way home from work thinking how swell it would be to have Obi at home here with me.
Obi was all ready old when I left home to go to grad school. He seemed older and older and less like his energetic, social self each time I have made it home while I have been away, but it has always been good to see him again and still share that room. Every time I made it back home I knew it might be the last time he would be there. Turns out that this was the case with my last visit home.
As someone who really hasn't lost many loved ones, it impresses me how much of an effect it has on me to lose a dog. When a man's dog dies, it is one of the 4 or 5 times that it is acceptable for him to remember his emotions and even let them show a bit and so I did. I know to some people a dog is just an animal and I understand that, but I bet anyone who has had a dog, cared for it, and been cared for by it can see that is not how I saw my dog. Obi was a real good one and I'll miss him.
3 comments:
Tom - beautiful eulogy. Obi was such a sweet dog and he'll be missed. Love, Rysers
Good ol' Obi. I remember when he was a pup playing in your backyard. I'm sure he and Zeus are having a great time in the great wide field of Dog Heaven.
Sorry to hear it, Tom. He was a great dog.
We're so sorry. Saying goodbye to a good dog is one of those really painful moments, but I'm pretty sure we'll see them again in the resurrection. They'll talk, and tell all the stupid things our family has done over the years. I always look at the dog when something crazy is happening and think, you're going to tell on us aren't you. . .
The Booths
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