beautiful, chris.

::: error, unable to respond without crying :::

he’s in our hearts too - you put him there so beautifully through the years - we grieve with you.  hugs from PA - connie

*crying*

i’m so happy that you were able to be with zeke until the end.
my heart is overflowing- i’m not sure how i ended up here; i just wish i could have had with my dog, what you had with zeke, at the end.
my 14 year old dog, bunny-  deaf and almost blind, arthritic and almost at the end of her life, went missing on january 11th.
i have done everything, and she is nowhere, and my heart is breaking over and over…

Oh, rose. I am so sorry.

thanks chris-
and by the by- i really like your blog-
you are an amazing writer
who had an wonderful dog.
i loved reading every word you wrote about him.
our dear animals- they love us unconditionally
and they leave their imprints on our hearts
forever…

Rose, I’m sorry to hear that Bunny went missing and can understand how deeply painful that is for you.

I know of two dogs who, in the past year, chose to go some distance away and leave their lives and bodies behind in private.  They belonged to acquaintances of mine and both seemed to understand that the time had come and chose to go into the woods and die. I’m not sure if it met their needs or if they felt it met their human’s needs. Perhaps Bunny felt likewise.

I hope that does not sound cruel or will be heard as hurtful as it certainly is not my intent. I just wonder if perhaps Bunny chose to meet the end in her own way.

My sympathies to you and I hope that you eventually learn what happened to her and that it is something peaceful.

rose, i’m very sorry for the loss of bunny.

the first cat my daughter knew and loved was her special pet, nikki, an adopted cat who lived with us for 6 years or so—they had the most fabulous friendship!  nikki used to wake me up if my daughter woke in the night or wasn’t feeling well—she was daughter’s guardian angel. 

nikki wasn’t feeling right, even though the vet found nothing really wrong, and one day she wandered off.  it broke my daughter’s heart.  we posted signs around the neighborhood, asked neighbors, visited the shelters.  it’s probably been 10 years now, and by coincidence, my daughter was just talking about nikki a few minutes ago.

long way of saying, i think some beloved animals do prefer to go off privately to die.  and, we do remember them for so long—i’m kind of guessing, forever.

Rose, what the others have said could very well be true. I’ve seen that happen. I realize that doesn’t make it easier and I’m sorry for your loss.

At our home in Maine, we’d planted a row of fruit trees.  All of our cats loved the trees, especially Sebastian (of Bridehead Revisted fame.)  When he left us, Eric buried him under the pear tree.  When Clara and Buttercup, both victims of our busy road, and Ben, a too-early premie, followed, they too joined Sebby.  The one regret I had selling our home to f*cking assholes was that our cats were there.

That tree, however, thrived much more than any of the others.

i just wanted to say a little sympathy and understanding goes an long, long way, and i thank you with all my heart.

Beautiful photos, Chris. Glad you’re tending your own garden—unlike Broob, who likes to turn up dirt in others’ fields.
Sed vocatus, respondebo . . .Enjoyed also your comments on me n’ Kirby on the trash-talkin’ torchecul “Pandagon” (“Iowahawk” sure did AM good, now didn’t he?). Love to grapple with Broob—he’s a BIG-REP/li’l show hoot! Seems he keeps tryin’ to get me banned (unsuccessfully so far) from one site after another by PC naggin’ nanny-style whinging with dashes of gravely vague menace and of squeaky Lilliput insolence.
Vielleicht wir sind Doppelgaengere . . . Perhaps if we met face to face, we might just embrace each other and suffer the fate of Ippolita and Giorgio in D’Annunzio’s gem, “Trionfo della Morte”, or, even better perhaps, that of Holmes and Professor Moriarty . . .
As for “Pandagon”, you seem a bit too decent to mess round on a filthy on-line rag like that . . . For noscitur a socios, as they say.

yr humb serv,

Dr JA

Jacques, you are the politest commenter I have ever banned. Unless one considers your work elsewhere.

(If you say Michael wants you banned, that’s good enough for me.)