Tesco in Ballymena have a charity book stall that raises funds for diabetes and, when I'm in there, I usually have a rummage through it. I'm afraid that it does not show Tesco customers in a very good light as the books available are pretty poor. Too much Cecilia Ahern and Dan Brown and not enough Good Stuff. However, I struck lucky the other day and picked up a copy of Louis de Bernieres' Red Dog which is something I've always wanted to read. So much so that I already have a copy, somewhere, some place. It might take me a week to find it for long gone are the days when I categorised my books by genre and the novels by author. Far easier to plop 50 pence in the collecting tin and start reading immediately.
When I got back Bert spotted it straight away.
What's that about?
It's about a dog. Set in Australia.
Does it have a happy ending?
Unlikely. When does a book about dogs ever have a happy ending?
Five minutes later I find him reading the book. The last few pages. One of Bert's strangest habits is that he reads the ending of a novel before the beginning.
Well? Happy ending?
Nope! It's at the vet. Got poisoned with strychnine and is being euthanised as I read.
Thanks for the details. Not!
And that's the true thing about dogs - they die far too soon. To love a dog is to store up a future sorrow. I've written about this before.
Right now I have friends whose senior dogs are giving them a lot of worry. We're thinking about Frank and Tycho and hoping that they'll both be around for a few years more.
4 comments:
There's a lady we like just down the street that takes in old, unwanted dogs from the pound. She gives them a few good years, and they love her for it.
She's a good person. I hope she gets help with the vet bills.
I've pulled a Bert a time or two, just saying.
It is so hard to lose our dogs. I will forever miss my beloved Maxwell, the wonder cowdog, and that rascal of a scotty, Fergus.
Sometimes I wonder if what makes losing dogs so hard is our anticipation of it. Because we KNOW they are going to go sooner than we'd wish. And, you're right, special dogs are never forgotten.
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