This is the fourth goodbye I’ve had to say since March of 2008. It’s sad. First, Charlie, my best friend from my morning jog. And then Ishka, Jamie’s best pal, whom I only got to know a little. And then Okie-Dokie, the wonderfull black cat who taught me more than I wanted to know about cats. And, now, Samantha, Jamie’s best friend from Puppy Kindergarten.
Samantha was a lovely black lab. She and Jamie got along really great right from the start. I wasn’t there to know this; Jamie tells me from her special swimming and frisbee-retrieving place in doggie heaven. Jamie liked Samantha a lot. So did Barbara and Fred. Actually, it was Samantha’s skill as a frisbee dog that prompted Fred to work so much, with me, on catching our “Chuckit” flying squirrel toy.
Samantha served as a therapy dog, visiting nursing homes in the San Fernando Valley, so she spent a lot of time cheering people up. Goodbye, Samantha; Jamie and I will miss you.
Fred’s favorite web site for people who have lost their pets is the collection of poems at petloss.com. Clink on this to see it.
His favorite, by Rudyard Kipling, is “Dinah Goes to Heaven.”
She did not know that she was dead
But, when the pang was o’er,
Sat down to wait her Master’s tread
Upon the Golden Floor,
With ears full-cock and anxious eyes,
Impatiently resigned;
But ignorant that Paradise
Did not admit her kind.
There was one step along the Stair
That led to Heaven’s Gate;
And, till she heard it, her affair
Was — she explained — to wait.
And she explained with flattened ear,
Bared lip and milky tooth–
Storming against Ithuriel’s Spear
That only proved her truth!
Sudden — far down the Bridge of Ghosts
That anxious spirits clomb–
She caught that step in all the hosts,
And knew that he had come.
She left them wondering what to do,
But not a doubt had she.
Swifter than her own squeal she flew
Across the Glassy Sea;
Flushing the Cherubs everywhere,
And skidding as she ran,
She refuged under Peter’s Chair
And waited for her man.
There spoke a Spirit out of the press,
‘Said: — “Have you any here
That saved a fool from drunkenness,
And a coward from his fear?
“That turned a soul from dark to day
When other help was vain;
That snatched it from Wanhope and made
A cur a man again?”
“Enter and look,” said Peter then,
And set the Gate ajar.
“If I know aught of women and men
I trow she is not far.”
“Neither by virtue, speech nor art
Nor hope of grace to win;
But godless innocence of heart
That never heard of sin:
“Neither by beauty nor belief
Nor white example shown.
Something a wanton — more a thief —
But — most of all — mine own.”
“Enter and look,” said Peter then,
“And send you well to speed;
But, for all that I know of women and men
Your riddle is hard to read.”
Then flew Dinah from under the Chair,
Into his arms she flew —
And licked his face from chin to hair
And Peter passed them through!
