Re: hum...now sad...

Beautiful... goes for cats too!
Cathy
On Jun 27, 2005, at 8:43 PM, A A HODGES wrote:

> I found this when I was looking at websites for Damascena's  
> headstone. I
> had it framed and gave it to my Vet as a thank you gift. These  
> words are
> the truest I've ever read of any beloved pet.
> A
>
>
> Where to Bury a Dog
> This piece by Ben Hur Lampman originally appeared
> in The Oregonian in 1926.
>
> A subscriber of the Ontario (Oregon) Argus has written to the  
> editor of
> that fine weekly, propounding a certain question, which, so far as  
> we know,
> remains unanswered: "Where shall I bury my dog?" It is asked in  
> advance of
> death. The Oregonian trusts the Argus will not be offended if this
> newspaper undertakes an answer, for surely such a question merits a  
> reply.
> It distresses (the writer) to think of his favorite as dishonored  
> in death,
> mere carrion to the winter rains. Within that sloping, canine  
> skull, he
> must reflect when the dog is dead, were thoughts that dignified the  
> dog and
> honored the master. The hand of the master and of the friend  
> stroked often
> in affection this rough, pathetic husk that was a dog.
>
> We would say to the Ontario man that there are various places in  
> which a
> dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was  
> flame in
> the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a  
> mean or
> an unworthy thought. This setter 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 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 his head to challenge some intruder. These are good  
> places
> in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter, and it touches  
> sentiment
> more than anything else. For if the dog be well remembered, if  
> sometimes he
> leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing,
> asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog  
> sleeps at
> long and at last. 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 pasture lane where most exhilarating cattle graze, it  
> is all
> one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, nothing  
> is lost,
> if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One  
> place that
> is best of all.
>
> If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already  
> have, 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, or
> resent his coming, for he is yours and belongs there. People may  
> scoff at
> you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who  
> hear no
> whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may 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 the heart of his master.
>
>
> Andrea H
> Beaufort, SC

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