Christmas Thoughts

Ash

Tomorrow is Christmas. I know mom got us mutts some fun stuff. She told me what she got Jack and Tess but she won’t say what she got me.

We’ll each have a frozen turkey neck to clean our teeth. Thanks Dr. Brad for telling mom it’s better than a tooth brush.

Jack’s new bed arrived from the Bean store in Maine. He’ll love it. We’ll give his old one to the poor dogs at the shelter.

Tess got an anxiety vest to help her red haired self calm down. She’s gonna wear it when she goes in the car and when the neighbor fools shoot off fireworks in July.

Mom’s been teasing me about my present. She says part of it is silly and the other part serious. I’m curious about the serious part. Mom says it is something special that me and her are going to do together. I hope it’s not another bath!

Not everything is happy this time of year. People get sad when they think about Christmas past. They remember their family and friends who aren’t in the world anymore. Mom calls it bittersweet.

Remembering the good times is the sweet part. Longing for the ones who are gone is an ache in the heart. This year our pack is gonna light a candle on Christmas day for each member we’ve lost: Darcy, Codie and Jesse.

We lost Darcy a year ago. We had a fun Christmas with him and he was having such a good time in our pack. Then he got real sick and died in the hospital.

Codie left us in July 2009. She got very old and asked to be released from her worn out body. I still can’t bark about her without getting choked up.

Jess was gone before I got here. It was nearly twenty years ago but mom still talks about him. She calls it keeping his memory alive.

My advice is enjoy the moment and treasure the past. When you put the two together you’ve got your whole life. Gotta run!

Darcy

Codie

Jesse

Presents

Ash

Last night I heard mom and dad talking about Christmas. This will be my fourth Christmas. I like Christmas day. In the morning everybody gets special hugs and kisses and extra treats. Later in the day our friends come over and they always bring me a present.

Last Christmas Tess was already at Asherpark so this is number two for her. She’s been asking me what I’m gonna give her. Give her? She takes my toys if she wants them. Why should I give her anything?

This is Jack’s first Christmas with us. He says being part of our pack is all the Christmas present he needs. I don’t think that’s all he’s gonna get.

Mom knows that Jack’s old bones ache in the cold wet weather. She sees that he has a harder time getting up and down. When mom put Jack to bed last night she noticed his bed was getting pretty thin. She laid down on it with him, which looked pretty silly, and decided there wasn’t enough stuffing.

Mom mentioned the thin bed to dad. He got all excited. “Let’s get Jack a new bed for Christmas,” dad said. “We can get him one like a couch with a back on it and put a heating pad in it.”

That got mom to thinking about the history of the dog beds in our house. Jack sleeps in a hand me down bed from our friend Frieda. Their cat kept peeing on it so it had to go to a new house. Tess sleeps on Codie’s old bed from LL Bean. That bed was bought new for Codie in 1993 and she used it until she died. Maybe we should tell the Beans how long it lasted. They might want it back to study it.

Anyway, mom got to wondering if Jack ever had a new bed of his own. She told me that’s gonna be his special present this year. A new dog bed all his own from the bean store. I hope Jack doesn’t pee on it. Oh well, it wouldn’t be the first time….. Anyway, gotta run!

Thinking Out Loud

Ash

Me and Jack were out doing our business. Like a couple of guys in the men’s room, we were barking nonsense to each other. Just for fun I asked him what he wanted for Christmas.

He put his leg down and looked at me. “I already got my Christmas present Ash. I got pulled from death row and I’m living a dream with you and Tess.”

Then his eyes teared up. “Ash, you don’t know what it’s like in a shelter. You’re in a cage 24 hours a day. The other dogs are barking and crying. You can smell the fear.”

“Some of the dogs were lost and their owners came for them,” Jack said. “I had an owner. She got in trouble because she didn’t take care of us. I kept hoping she would come get me and my buddy Butch, but she never did. If it weren’t for Old Dog Haven I’d be stinking up a grave somewhere.”

I understood the words Jack barked, but they made no sense to me. From the time I was a pup mom said she would always be there for me. She said if I ever got lost she would move heaven and earth to find me. Mom said me and her are soul mates and she would never ever give me up.

Jack

Jack found another tree to piss on. As he lifted his leg he looked right at me. “Be grateful that you’ve never known anything but love, Ash. You’re one of the chosen ones. But I’m the one who was saved. I’ll never forget that someone cared enough about a lonely old dog like me to save my hide. That’s pretty special.”

With that Jack trotted back to the house. He hadn’t seen mom for a couple of minutes and he was getting nervous. Chosen or saved. Each of us came to Asherpark on a different path, but here we were doing business together. I like that.