CHAROITE SIBERIANS

I must’ve been feeling a bit low yesterday as an actual cartoon made me cry. This isn’t unusual as lots of things make me cry, and they usually involve dogs (don’t even mention I Am Legend… and sometimes horses.

This is the cartoon.

This was coupled with reading two enormously saddening things. The first was a post on Facebook about a woman from Hull who had a Siberian destroyed simply because she couldn’t cope with him. The other was a news report about record numbers of “exotic” dog breeds like huskies being abandoned. I’m not sure I’d call a Sibe exotic but I guess if they mean dogs that are a bit out of the ordinary in terms of behaviour then I suppose it’s not a million miles from the truth.

Neither of the above stories is particularly surprising considering they involve people and people have the nasty habit of not being such a good person as their dogs think they are.

Dogs really don’t ask for much in life.

I suppose you’d be worried if a fellow human ever appeared to be as happy to see you as your dog(s) is even when you’ve just been to the bathroom or made a cup of tea but no one will ever make you feel more loved or more forgiven.

Anyway, dogs deserve a better deal than they often get.

Probably the least of it is they totally deserve to still be loved and wanted and for you to be proud of them when their little bodies get a bit older and they can no longer do the things quite as well that once made their owner look pretty good on the trail or in the ring.

So, old dogs are a privilege.

I also cried this week reading about a friend feeling that a much-loved departed dog had returned home for a visit. I remember when my amazing Standard Poodle died in my arms at the vet. Her life wasn’t anywhere near as long as it should have been and words can’t describe how much or how deeply I grieved for that dog. My heart had been totally broken and I wasn’t going to have another. About a month after she passed away, Hanna came briefly home and once more I felt the sudden warmth that comes from the familiar doggy grin and insanely wagging tail that helps you actually believe (rather than just tell yourself) everything is okay. A greeting that says you’ve come home and not just into a house where you happen to live. It was after that I realised that I couldn’t not have a dog in my life, and Mojo and the huskies came.

I still like to think – like the cartoon – that sometimes there will be an extra, curly black dog snuggled up with the Siberians.