Morgan was always an old soul – wasn’t a giddy, licking puppy, but more a serious schoolmarm with a very warm heart. She slept on the foot of her boy’s bed until he grew too big and rolled over on her too many times in the night. Our daughter’s first word was “woof!” and her first delighted belly laugh as an infant was while watching Morgan chase balls, barking, in the yard.
So today I am doing, for the first time, what I’ve advised to scores of bereaved friends during my years of bookselling. I’m bringing home “Dog Heaven” by Cynthia Rylant. This simple, sweetly illustrated book tells the story of what might greet a dog if God were a dog lover: fields for running, biscuits without end, puffy clouds for napping … and a chance to slip down from time to time, to check on family below.

And chasing squirrels! She caught one once, here on earth. It shocked her as much as it did the squirrel, and she spit it out quickly once both realized what had happened and the squirrel directed its fury at her muzzle.
We will need that comfort tonight, a fairy tale to remind us why we released her to the great sleep today. We will always know her as that dog in Dog Heaven – happy, healthy, free, a big part of our hearts forever.
-Victoria
-Victoria
A tough book to read at first...it being challenging to read through tears. It gets easier over time though, and Dog Heaven remains a wonderful and comforting remembrance of those four legged friends who accept us for who we are and who have such a huge presence in our lives. RIP Miss Morgan, and RIP Ed, who I lost a decade ago. Still miss him.
ReplyDeleteLovely. I especially enjoyed hearing about the time Miss Morgan caught the squirrel.
ReplyDeleteAs I wipe away my tears, I am off to find our family's dog-eared copy of "Dog Heaven." I think I'll read it one more time. Sigh.
Thanks, Victoria.
I am now on my fifth cocker from childhood, and have owned other breeds too, but they all have had that wonderful doggie heart that loves you unconditionally. A little voice says to me with each acquisition that my heart will be broken some day and I curse their short life cycle, but that steadfast companionship is something I cannot resist. When I took my prior dog in I asked him to please come see me later and he did, that very day, in a dream and I reached down and touched him and physically felt him, it woke me up.
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