Thank you, Dottie. I'm sorry to hear this sad story but I think you're right, your husband and the pup are together now. I'm sorry for your loss and wish you well, you are in my heart and prayers.E's wrote:This one got to me even more than the others, Jim - although they are all beautiful [I hope there will be an anthology one can copy?] Yet, as with the others, it is very comforting too... Subjectively, which is to say on a personal level, December is a difficult month for me, especially because I don't think it would be fair of me to damage the joy other people take in the season, so there is a certain amount of subterfuge and/or pretense involved - which works sometimes and sometimes makes things worse...
Briefly: In an eastern suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, condos were being built in a new development only a few blocks from the high-rise apartment where my husband and I lived. We bought one of these condos - it was to be finished in January - and one of the first things we intended to do was to get a dog (hadn't had one since moving from Nebraska several years earlier.) the president of the company my husband was with had a miniature schnauzer - wonderful little dog - and the couple had promised to refer us to the breeder as soon as we were ready...
Things were going well, although the economy was heading toward a minor recession and the Skipper was stressed about having to lay off more people [it was an electronics manufacturing company and foreign manufacturers were even then playing hob with US markets] and his blood pressure was a little high... Then there was this C & W song that year with the theme re a shaky economy: "If we can make it through December ..."
We didn't make it through December, because of a sudden, massive coronary occlusion...
The schnauzer pup that wasn't even whelped then would long since have grown old and gone to the Rainbow Bridge... Thus, it comforts me greatly to think that in the unknowable workings of space and time, the man and the dog have already met and gone up the green hill together... and now I know I will be okay too again this year...
Thank you, Jim, and here's wishing all of us a pleasant Holiday Season!
Dottie B
New Orleans
I remember that song - I think Merle Haggard sang it. Where were you and your husband living in Nebraska? I was born in Alliance, in Sandhill country and lived there until I was 16.
Have a Merry Christmas, Dottie, this is a time when we can count our blessings for the love we have for those dear to us.