If Dogs Could Speak
I just spent the good part of a day attempting to focus on work. Our young pup, Hank, is curled around the base of my office chair as if he can't quite get as close as he'd like. If I get up to top off my cup of tea, he follows.
If he could speak, I wonder if he'd confirm my suspicions that dogs feel emotions just as we feel them. Sadness, elation, joy, fear...
I wonder if he'd tell me that he really, truly misses his brother and best friend.
Aside from the hours after we brought Hank home, he and Zen have been inseparable. Sure, there was an acclimation period, but overall they've been quite the pair over the last year and a half.
Sadly, that era has passed. We lost Zen suddenly two days ago to what we can only guess was heart failure. He was playing happily at the family ranch one minute and then, in a matter of seconds, he was gone.
He was about 10 years old.
I wonder what he would have told us, had he been able to speak. Maybe he would have told us he wasn't feeling well. All signs pointed to him being a happy, healthy dog, but maybe there was something not even a thorough "senior dog" check up at the vet's office could tell us.
Perhaps he would have simply told us that everything would be okay and that he'd had a great life.
All I can know for sure is that we miss him. We miss his finicky eating habits and the way he'd bark at the UPS truck before it even turned the corner onto our block. I miss the way he'd nuzzle my arm with his nose so I'd pet him just a little longer...
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The blog may be a little quiet this week as I turn my attention to other things, but I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming very soon.
In the mean time, feel free to check out a few posts on Hank and Zen from happier times here, here, here and here. I know I'll be doing the same.
Take care, friends.