Four-Footed Ghosts

Our backyard gate opens into the park surrounding North holiday lake. I took Rufus and Chica for a walk down to Dog Beach, a little alcove with a gradual slide into the drink. A park bench there acts as a lifeguard station for us to monitor the activities.

I couldn’t shake the very real ghosts of other dogs and other times when we walked the same path, and didn’t want to. I missed Kira and Sasha and Lily the blind cocker spaniel. She had spent her entire reproductive life locked in a cage, and was dumped unceremoniously at a shelter when she was no longer useful as breeding stock. When we would walk down into the park with a group of dogs, she was so damn happy to be out loose, in the high grass and fresh air, her little truncated stump of a tail, never stopped spinning. 

Kira never need a leash and was offended by the thought. She didn't identify with dogs, generally finding them to be crude and disgusting creatures.  A Lab/Rottie mix, she didn't have a mean bone in her body and only wanted one thing passionately: to be with me. I could walk with her down St George Street when it's packed with tourists, she would be at my heels, oblivious to other humans, dogs, noise or distractions of any kind. I never gave her "commands", she didn't need them. I spoke to her as I would any family member. "You should stay here and wait for me, I'm going inside this store to look at T-shirts." She would be right there when I came back out, even if a hurricane had come through while I was gone, she would be there. A tours bus filled with squirrels giving her the raspberries out the windows? She would stay put. 

Kira loved to wade around in the water at Dog Beach. Being overweight from too many great breakfasts I cooked for the two of us, the water gave her buoyancy and helped relieve the stiffness of the arthritis she had in later years.

It surprises me how much I miss that bossy little black terrier who loved to jump up into my lap and put his nose right on mine and grin at me in a way that made me worry for the safety of my nostrils. I wondered what a person would look like with no lips or nose,  conjuring images of the unmasking scene in The Phantom of the Opera. I know the dog was just saying hello, but he specialized in that intimidating shark grin of his. Quite a set of chompers on that one. I think he used whitening strips.

The brown Ridge-back foster, was a moose. Unflappable, calm and stoic. We found a good home for him.

Valley Girl was a Red Heeler, almost completely bald from a bad combination of mange and neglect. With lots of special shampoos over the course of six months, she grew back tufts of reddish brown fur. That breed is known for being smart smart, and she sure was. She could size everything up and know how to make it all work to her advantage. She wound up in a great forever home too.

I miss all of them so very much. Each one had tremendous depth of character and honesty. 

It would be great to send such a group to Capitol Hill and  show the morally corrupt  senators and congressmen just how it’s done.A few good dogs could lead by example for our elected officials. 

Unlike politicians, dogs care about their humans more than themselves. 

Everyone knows, dogs are simply a better class of people.