Most of you -- Susan's and my readers -- are familiar with out Yellow Lab siblings, Rufus and Lucy, whom we've had since about their fourth day out of the womb. Over the years, we've referenced them in our columns to make points about "unconditional love" and the sheer joys of dog companionship.
Both dogs have had the potential to outlive their normal live expentancy.
Lucy barely did. We lost her last New Year's Eve at just over 14 years (equivalent to 98 human years) as a result of liver cancer, and enervating effects of spinal surgery and knee replacement surgery.
Rufus is still hangin' in there. His main problems are ones to which I can personally relate, difficulty walking, in his case because of serious, classic Labrador hip dysplasia, whereby the "socket" portion of his hip joints have deteriorated so badly they no longer hold the ball portion of the joint up into the socket, so they tend to become "disjointed" when he walks.
When he collapses, we have to put a padded sling under his belly to lift him up high enough to get his hips straight down under him again so he can walk forward.
Oh, and there's the issue of his forgetfulness and dementia. Now pushing 15 years, he's like a little old man trying to adjust to the loss of his lifetime partner.
When Lucy passed, we buried her down in the lower part of the yard where she used to just roam by the hour, pushing through shrubbery, inhaling each new smell of the day, and barking a fierce warning at any living thing that traversed the pathway just outside the chain-link fence.
Our daughter Kim Isaac, currently the practicing "artiste du jour" of the family, made a beautiful mosaic tile with Lucy's name on it for a marker. She has promised a matching tile with Rufus' name when the time comes.
So this cool, shady place in our lower yard has taken on significance the likes of which we had never planned. It will always be the focal point for so many warm and happy memories of Rufus and Lucy, and the joy they brought into our lives.
Every family should be so blessed.
And remember, dog spelled backwards is God. And I think that simply is too profound a coincidence to just write it off as God messin' with our heads.
-- Jerry Coffee, MidWeek, July 15, 2015
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