On dogs
They spend their lives taking your tears away -
only to give them back to you in one go.
We will almost all of us experience the passing of family members. But what’s not talked about quite as much is the passing of a dog.
A family close to us recently lost their dog - a labrador which got to a ripe old age. The family group message was: ‘Bailey ate his last meal and went up to bed - passing quietly in his sleep’. Old age came gracefully and he passed equally gracefully - a live well-lived and definitely filled with love and adulation.
It then occurred to me how many millions of dog owners must have wished that their pet had a lifespan closer to that of humans. This wish makes especial sense given the fact that dogs don’t just become ‘family members’ or ‘best friends’ because we anthropomorphise them. They are genuinely and objectively sentient beings – eighty percent unconditional love, and twenty percent a definite emotional and intellectual presence. They are fully worthy of the moniker ‘family’, and ‘friend’.
Many dogs will have grown up with their owner/family – with some joining them later in the dog’s life. Either way – you are their whole world, in a way which human-to-human connections cannot match.
Now imagine if the above wish could come true for all those dog-owners – no more multiplying by seven to figure out their likely lifespan – they will simply live roughly as long as you.
Careful what you wish for.
Imagine then that – especially in the context of a one-to-one human-dog connection – you died first! Forget your life flashing before your eyes – all you’ll be concerned about with your last microvolts of electrical neural activity – is what will happen to the owner of those big, loving eyes!? He or she will have been condemned to a literal eternity (because that’s how dog-clocks go) of loneliness and a loveless void.
And no matter what the setting – e.g. a family where there are multiple members and therefore multiple sources of love – there could always come a day when the dog will lose some or all of you.
So – scratch that wish. Where you are dealing with something as uniquely loving and dependent as a dog – your primary wish should be that you are virtually guaranteed to be there for him or her for their entire life – virtually guaranteed to have them die in your arms.
You will be there to witness their entire lives – and were there to ensure that all they ever knew was love – on your terms, from beginning to the end.
Their short life – is their final gift to you.