I’m trying my best not to be sad and as I thought about our walks in Stony Park (cemetery near my former place) how it was always a big adventure, I remembered the time when a cock crowed. We were minding our own business when all of a sudden, the next thing that happened was faster than lightning. Rufus struck a chicken tied to a tree trunk!! OMG! I was shouting at Rufus to drop the chicken! Drop it! Drop it!!! Stop biting the cock!!!……while scurrying downhill navigating the gravestones to grab him by the harness. A man sprung up from one of these gravestones, a bird poacher it seems, as he was hiding behind and started yelling at Rufus & I. Then I shouted back at him demanding to know why he tied the chicken (rooster or more like jungle fowl that the poacher used to lure other fowls) up seeing that my dog was roaming in the park. My free ranging canine reluctantly dropped the still-alive poultry, as I dragged him back up the slope to head home with a mouthful of feathers. OMG. I didn‘t know if the cock was more traumatised then or I was, having to deal with two animals and a crazy poacher on a Sunday morning. Of course I felt bad that he had shaken the chicken half dead. Rufus was a very instinctive dog and was a natural hunter & protector. Soon after his attention was diverted by the tone of the poacher’s voice, he began to growl at him. It was then that I saw how fierce he was but looking back now, I laughed so hard at all the drama he’s given me, teaching me about life, about humans being scarier than ghosts in cemeteries, staying safe and the importance of communicating with your pets so that they will know your tone of voice if you are in danger.
Thank you, dear friends, for calling me and crying with me, letting me know how you identified with my pain as you too, felt the grief that I am still feeling. I’m truly sorry but am so grateful that your calls and messages made me feel better. Some of you have journeyed with Rufus & I from the days of FFF rescue, babysat him in my absence and missions, and experienced all the hilarious drama he had gotten himself into (and you in the process) and I know that Rufus had an extended family in all of you.
I leave you with this peaceful picture of him curled up and sleeping on my bed and be comforted in the knowledge of what’s written inEcclesiastes 3:18-21: “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath (literally “spirit“); humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” And in Luke 12:6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.” Although there’s no biblical support to say whether dogs will end up in heaven, I still find the comfort in knowing that animals will continue to exist in the Kingdom of Heaven in Isaiah 11:6-9.
