If A Dog Be Well Remembered

[Madeara]

IF A DOG BE WELL REMEMBERED

 

 

 

I am thinking now of a Golden, whose coat was flame in the sunshine and who, so far as I am aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This Golden is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave. Beneath a cherry tree or an apple or any flowering shrub of the garden is an excellent place to bury a good dog.

 

Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer or gnawed at a flavorous bone or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter. For if the dog be well-remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where the dog sleeps. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pastureland, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog and all one to you, and nothing is gained and nothing is lost -- if memory lives.

 

But there is one best place to bury a dog. If you bury him in this spot, he will come to you when you call - come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again.

 

And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they shall not growl at him, nor resent him coming, for he belongs there. People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper, people who never really have had a dog. Smile at them, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.

 

The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.

 

 

 

Paraphrased from the Portland Oregonian,

September 11, 1925

by Ben Hur Lampman

[Guest FullMetalFrank]

Thank you, very beautiful... Clare posted a similar version awhile back and it, and this, brought tears to my eyes. I have a copy of the one Clare posted in with Iberia's things.

[Guest how888]

The tears are flowing, thank you, That was so beautiful. I miss my precious How (Howie )so much. I come on here to read the stories, posts and poems. Our life is so empty without a greyhound since he departed this earth plane but I know we will one day be in contact again.I believe he watches over us from Heaven above and we will someday meet again. We only had him 7 short months but he gave us a lifetime of beautiful "unconditional "love and memories. I needed that tonight!!

[Guest alkeryia]

[Guest BrockGusDad]

Beautiful.......

 

Thanks for posting.

[Guest Snowy8]

That was so beautiful. Such a tribute to the puppers that we love. In 5 short years, I have lost 5 greyhounds. 3 in less than 8 months for various reasons, cancer...spider bite & heart attack. My first died from an Akita attack.....then my old man Picadilly, bless his heart he died of old age. He was 13 when I got him. His previous owner had owned him for 10 yrs. Their child was allergic to him....or was it the vet bills...anyhoo.

[laurie]

That's very beautiful, and very comforting. I hate it that we didn't cremate Em separately. When it happened, they told us they would keep her the rest of the wknd. In a freezer. I just couldn't bring myself to go get her frozen body.

 

But she is 'buried' in my heart, and always will be.