Establishing the pecking order: Left to right. Annie, Cooper, and Pony. This photo was taken soon after Annie's arrival as a foster dog that we just couldn't bring ourselves to let go. In stature, Pony was the smallest. Headstrong, fiercely independent, a little quirky and a bit of a punk, here she used Cooper to teach Annie, largest of the three, her place in the pecking order by rolling her. This was a good exercise for Cooper also, being as how he was very mellow and a bit timid. But his confidence grew with the addition of Annie who was undeterred by the best efforts of her brother and sister. Having never been on a race track like Pony and Cooper, Annie was pure dog with a spirit that wasn't about to be wounded, even by our indomitable "punk", Pony, and her henchman, Cooper. In time they melded into a very cohesive group.Tuesday, July 11th will be six weeks since our Pony died. I haven't felt like writing about her. Best let 'sleeping dogs lie' has been my feeling. I've felt no need to eulogize the last of our three greyhounds to pass within the space of a year's time. That's because I installed a screensaver of many photos of The Po', "Mister" Cooper and dear Annie and we remember them many times throughout the day. And that's more than enough sadness.
Brother and sisters. Background left to right: Annie, Pony with Cooper in foreground.I didn't really intend this blog to be about the dogs but about their legacy. Of what I've come to realize stronger than ever before because of them. And that is, how very precious all life is.
Don't get me wrong here. When I say that, I'm not including the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, Perle, DeLay, Ken Lay,and one of my favorites, Alberto Gonzales as life forms. No, those are something you step in on a walk that, when you return home, you have to scrape off your shoes so you don't track shit into the house. No, I'm talking about real life forms here.
Since the departure of our "kids", I've noticed we're paying more attention to the neighbor's dogs, to the neighborhood birds. To the geckos that climb all over our house after dark. This is what I'd really intended to talk about. But as so easily happens whenever the dogs pop up, I've gotten sidetracked.
So, having posted a bit about the birds in my previous blog, I think I'll save the geckos for another time. They have become a delight to observe and appreciate, and I credit our dear departed dogs for that.
If only man listened to the animals more. But he assumes he knows all he needs to. And therein may lie the fatal flaw of Homo sapiens.
7 comments:
dada, these are such happy pictures, please don't say they make you sad. A moment captured & treasured lives forever. What a pack they were & how fortunate you were to have had them in your life!
re: "if only man listened to the animals more" ... yes, observe, talk to, interact, be a part of nature instead of a destroyer! Modern man's hubris may well extend to removing himself from fellow creatures, but if so, he is certainly the poorer for it. D.K.
Hey, thanks so much for sharing your critters with us...we had an old fella Siamese we had to have put down after him being a unique person in our fam for almost ten years; he was a talker! Our Jessie's been gone for damn near seven years now, and I still miss him.
Oh, and thanks for the head's up on what to do with the left-over watta-melon; I love a bird-fest myself!
hey, meldonna, siamese ARE unique (the most doglike of cats & that's a high compliment indeed). I've even heard some women say their mee-yowls can instigate lactation (this may be a folk legend)! I loved the ones I grew up with, the old-fashioned kind with big round heads. I don't condone breeding, but am hoping to eventually "find" myself another. Though the way it usually works out is, they find me. D.K.
You know, feeding watermelon rinds to the backyard birds reconnected me with a memory from my youth.
Thinking I'd never seen birds woofing down WM remnants before, my brain was working furiously, connecting dendrites to form a highway back to a long forgotten summer getaway high in the Rockies of my mind.
Once there, I remember the chickens on the farm and how they loved just about any remnants of things we'd consumed. Of how, on my way outside to play, my sister would hand me a plate of "garbage" sayings, "Here, feed the chickens on your way out."
They always seemed to appreciate rummaging through our discards...
especially the watermelon!
living in the desert, we don't compost but feed the leftovers to the birds and critters..
what i have enjoyed is watching them peck at cherry tomoatoes..they try and try to catch it as it hops around...
and about your dogs..i just put-to-sleep my 16 yr old red bone hound dog...sigh...i have to just enjoy the time i had with her!!
AZ - I'm truly sorry to hear of the loss of your 16 yr. old hound. I can't imagine having an old 'chum' around for 16 years! How very lucky you were, albeit, how much greater the loss you must be feeling after that length of time. That's a real void left to be filled!
Thanks for the cherry tomatoes idea. That has to be entertaining to watch.
I confess, I didn't eat my last bowl of watermelon. I put it out for the birds over the last two days and they woofed it up...they even washed the dish! (grin)
(Ahm, it was a BIG bowl!)
Thank you for sharing the Kids...and they are so beautiful and they look SO HAPPY...and that is becuase of your Loving Care and Loving Home, seeing them was so wonderful....
Animals hold all the Real Lessons- if only we all we better students...and listened harder....
Hey Mel, so sorry about Jessie- love hearing about him though. DK- you always know the right thing to say.......and to the Hound Dog Goddess- many good thoughts- I too am a Houndog woman- they are wonderful creatures....
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