And he saw your soul and left buoyed with gratitude.

Bless Ghost, his neighbor, and all dogs and friends here and gone.
Damned if they don't leave a hole when they leave, all of them. The older I get the more hopeful I am that when we leave we fill a hole somewhere else.

I still feel the hole left when my big old English Bulldog, the dumbest and most empathetic animal on the planet (who almost killed me twice)died a couple of years ago.

As has been asked elsewhere: " What did humanity do to deserve dogs?"

(The answer, thousands of years of careful breeding, applies to Europeans too, of course.)

That's beautiful writing, ghost.

That was beautiful, Ghostsniper. Kipling was a dog lover. This is one of my favorites.

JWM

The Power of the Dog

Garm A hostage.

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie --
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find -- it's your own affair --
But . . . you've given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit hat answered your every mood
Is gone -- wherever it goes -- for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept'em, the more do we grieve;

For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long --
So why in -- Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

That was beautiful. I watched my 13 year old lab mix run across the backyard the other day and wonder how many more days we have with her. She's followed us across three states and been a blessed companion.

You're a good man, Ghost.

I'd better pet my dog a bit extra tonight.

That's an excellent point right there Howard, one in which I had never pondered before. Thank you for the perspective.

"Before you can look into the eyes of another you must first offer your eyes to them."
--gs, 2099

Ugh, the anthropomorphism in this thread makes me want to puke.

On Sunday, after we got home from church, I found a stray dog panting by the garage. As we have lots of other animals, many of whom have been attacked by the neighbor's wandering dogs, I was indeed alarmed. I also have small children.

In short order, I set the shotgun by the door and Beretta on the counter, both fully loaded. (Yes, I have small children, but they are trained to function around weaponry.) Eventually, we got the stray loaded into a crate, taken into town and given to one of the sheriff's deputies.

It reminded me of the time I was woken in the night by screaming goats and barking dogs. When I exited the side of the house toward the barn, I could see a dog-shape running away to my left. I tracked quickly with the shot gun and fired. The dog ran up the road a ways and fell over dead. Good riddance, stray wandering killer.

Four years ago I had bought a prize male German Shepherd for $2000. He was to befriend the registered female I had bought for $1500. The male had something wrong in his head the anthropomorphic dog breeder didn't bother to tell me about. One morning I woke early to the sounds of animals screaming and barking. I saw the male running across the property and toward the goat pen. I ran out bare footed and caught him astride our herd alpha. When the alpha goat bolted, he went after her with a blood lust like I had never seen. I grabbed him as he ran past and tossed him into the concrete block wall to stun him. After I tied him up, I asked the wife and kids what they thought I should do to him. During the night he had killed every chicken and rabbit on the place, literally tearing cages apart to get to them. Everyone agreed, put him down now. So, I put a .22 round through his head while the family looked on. Aside from the financial loss, nobody had an ounce of remorse.

My point? Please DO NOT anthropomorphize your neighbor's stupid animal. Don't anthropomorphize any animal unless you are ready to go all the way.

What do I mean by "all the way"? Are you ready to put down (i.e. KILL) "someone" who would harm you. That killer being your little pet pseudo-human fifi, kai, rover, or whatever.

Don't get me wrong, I like dogs. I like them just like I love progressive democrats. When they are well-behaved and pissing on themselves when I come around, I like them. As soon as they decide to dominate me and mine, it is time for a bullet.

Don't ever forget that.

In the early 00's I went through a period of time where my business required me to put in 80+ hours per week and I usually got home about 9:30pm or so. Our 2 female spaniels were in dire need of their walk so I leashed them and out we went. We lived in suburbia and there were no street lights so it was plenty dark but we were going around the block none the less. Halfway around the block where the houses had thinned out and the darkness doubled something attacked us.

Dogs are hardwired to defend their master and both of my spaniels lunged at the attacker. Instantly I saw the danger and it was nothing but pure action and reaction for the next 30 seconds or so.

First, I yanked back HARD on the spaniels leashes to keep them out of the way and simultaneously let loose the hounds of hell, my 2 feets.

The attacker was a 100+ lb Rottweiler running loose in the neighborhood. I kicked it in the side hard enough that if it had been a football it would have cleared 2 fields. It wasn't fazed. Nor was I, I was in it for however long it would take.

Alternating back and forth with my feet I delivered 20 to 30 blows from both sides and in short order it had had enough and took off. The spaniels and I headed for home but kept looking to the rear. Neither I nor the mutts were injured but it took me some 30 minutes to drain down the adrenaline dump.

Couple weeks later the same thing occurred but this time it was a german shepherd. It wasn't as resilient as the Rott and I left it's carcass laying in the street.

Comparing friends to enemies only shows the shallowness of your intellect.

Loving a dear pet isn't anthropomorphism. Dressing a chihuahua up in doll clothes and calling it your child is. Nothing in Ghost's essay had a scintilla of anthropomorphism.

Ghost: Always value your posts... at different sites...Thanks, soapweed

Goodness edaddy, I smell hate in your post. Ghost is right. Some dogs are friends and some are not.

Indeed, you do smell hate. I hate anthropomorphism like little else.

Dogs are great ... all animals are, in fact. They are great in their place in God's creation.

What they are not is human with emotions "just like us."

I seriously believe the underlying urge to anthropomorphize an animal is the same urge that drives leftists to assign all sorts of noble nonsense to illegal aliens in this country.

To the anthropomorphist there is no difference between a human or an animal who "strays" across borders. It's not the stray dog or the human that I utterly loathe, rather it is the anthropomorphist who tells me what the "other" is thinking and feeling.

So what you're saying is that you hate anthropomorphism.

What's it called when the MSM makes stuff up and then goes on and on about how bad that made-up stuff is?

Are the MSM insane, or are they trying to establish a communist agenda?

Anthropomorphize?
'Domesticated' canine -- loyalty, kindness (within and interspecies, protectiveness (within and interspecies, faithfulness in the sense of trust in the dog's human guardian.
'Domesticated' human -- qualities similar to those above, plus more complex intellectual and emotional qualities than the canine including, for some, spirituality, belief/faith/trust in a higher power of one kind or another.
The canine is more similar to a very young human child than to an adult human.
So what? For the crucial qualities of the canine why not consider the human canine-ized.
Are we humans not lacking in the fine qualities spelled out above for the canine who are serving as our mentors in those respects?

This was lovely, Ghostsniper. Just right.

Well edaddy, I hate sentimentality, which is related to your special hate. lol.

I believe a dog has empathy for it's master. They are sad with you, and also content with your happiness. By learning your expressions, they evolved from wolves to be mans best friend. Without humans, there wouldn't be dogs.

I'm sorry for the loss of your friend and companion.