I know I am not the only person ever to love a dog, but sometimes a personal story connects with the feelings of others.
So here goes…
Sashie was lost and alone as well as homeless after the death of her commander in chief, a neighbour called Kevy.
Other neighbours rescued her, but she escaped and came around to my place, taking up a position in the front yard and looking towards the door until she was rescued again and handed over to me.
“Sounds like you’ve got a dog,” my daughter said.
After a while Sashie became less needy and more affectionate and I realised I quite liked her too.
I didn’t realise I had fallen right in love with this tiny little soul in what turned out to be the last weeks of her life.
I also now realise that under her influence and that of loved ones, I had finally graduated from grumpy old man to sentimental old fool – so sentimental that I held a makeshift funeral for her before work on Monday and got my phone to play Tom T Hall…
“Ain’t but three things in this world that’s worth a solitary dime,'” he sang,
“But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.”
Sashie left us overnight Sunday-Monday.
I was with her for her last day and near her on her last night.
I buried her in a private spot in the back yard.
She died peacefully and I told her she was a good girl.
