My family lost a close and
very dear friend back in February 2007. I think about him everyday. Back when
it happened, I even wrote an editorial for one of my magazines about him. My
publisher of the time pulled the editorial. He told me no one really cared
about happenings in my own life. I disagreed, believing my readers - mostly farmers – would be able to relate.
Even so, I caved and wrote something “more suitable.”
I’ve saved that editorial all
these years and I’ve decided to publish it here. The Genius once read it at a
Toastmaster’s meeting and all the women cried. So be prepared. And please let me know what you think. It can be hard writing into the silent void of the Internet.
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My family lost a close and
very dear friend recently.
My children had known him
their entire lives, my husband for the past nine years or so, and I had been
close to him (and he to me) for his entire life.
He was a joker and a free
spirit who loved everyone. And everyone loved him right back. He was also the
kind of friend you could rely on. When life was tough, he’d be there to talk
with and lend a shoulder to cry on. He had a rough side, too. He was a risk
taker, an explorer with an enthusiasm for life. We used to joke he’d probably
die in mid-stride, on route to a new adventure.
Cancer got him in the end;
his body shivering with pain, his breathing laboured.
His name was Jasper – Crystal
Creek’s Jasper Jynx to be exact. He was my dog and, simply put, one of my very
best friends.
Jasper entered my life
12-plus years ago, a headstrong liver and white coloured English Springer
Spaniel puppy who cried and whimpered almost non-stop for the first two weeks
he lived with me. I almost took him back to the breeder I had bought him from.
But I persevered and he soon settled down.
If he could be described in
one word, I think it would be exuberant – nothing got that crazy dog down.
Everyday was a new adventure, every step a new discovery. He was my constant
companion. If I went to the store, he rode shotgun. He slept under the covers
of my bed at night. And when I went for evening walks on my parent’s farm, he
was 20 feet ahead of me. We would walk four miles a day, from one concession to
the next and then along a side concession and back again. His flag of a tail
was always in front of me, never behind, always urging me on.
When I met my husband, Jasper
was there. He was part of my “dowry” (along with a Clydesdale-Saddlebred cross
mare named Bobbi) and made the move to my new urban home. My husband, a city
boy who had never had a pet dog (which seemed very odd to me at the time and
still does), wasn’t very enthusiastic about his new, four-footed housemate. To
his credit, he built Jasper a state-of-the art, fully electrified and
insulated, heated doghouse (our friends used to joke that all it needed was a
computer and Internet access). But the dog didn’t use it for long. Soon, he was
basking in the heat or air conditioning of the house. But never the bed –
that’s where my husband drew the line.
Jasper and I just weren’t
meant for city life. Eventually, my husband and I moved from our cramped city
home to a small farm in the country. We hadn’t been in our farmhouse a month
before Jasper started cleaning up the new neighbourhood, rousting both an
opossum and raccoon family out of our barn and killing a fox.
Nothing gave him more
pleasure than to chase barn cats and wild rabbits. The strange thing was, he
was always good with the pet rabbits. We once had a massive rabbit break-out –
the bunny equivalent of The Great Escape – and it was Jasper who caught them
all, one at a time, dropping them at our feet unscathed, with only a few damp
hairs and very hurt prides.
When the children came,
Jasper was there. He wasn’t sure what to make of them. They smelled interesting
but made a lot of noise, especially when he tried to clean their ears. They
also didn’t move out of his way. But my husband and I seemed to like the babies
so he put up with them. He never growled or snarled when his ears or tail were
pulled. He followed the avoidance philosophy – if one of the little critters
was bothering him, he’d just get up and leave.
Unfortunately, the kids grew
up and became faster. I had difficulty explaining to my tear-stained little boy
that Jasper wasn’t meant for riding. My daughter was convinced for the longest
time the dog was really her brother. Both kids were also fond of pretending
Jasper was their long-lost mother. I hadn’t the heart or the ability to make
them understand the dog was actually a male – a neutered male at that. Jasper
would roll his eyes and try to keep one step ahead of them as they crawled
after him, yipping like puppies.
This past Halloween, my
daughter insisted the dog dress as a skeleton, complete with glow-in-the-dark
bones. It wasn’t long after that he actually began to resemble his Halloween
self, the flesh melting from him. His sleek physique and shiny fur disappeared.
We tried changing dog food, thinking perhaps his teeth couldn’t handle the
crunchy kibble anymore. We tried soft food and soon shifted to canned. He lost
weight while his stomach ballooned.
A visit to the vet before
Christmas ended in tears. Tumours were growing near Jasper’s liver and spleen.
He hadn’t long to live. We gave him the best Christmas ever, complete with
liver pate and shrimp. He had a wagon ride to the bush to chase squirrels and
bunnies. He ate ravioli and cheeseburgers everyday. And for the last week of
his life, he slept on our bed, between my husband and I.
He’s buried along the
windbreak just to the west of our house. We wrapped him in a blanket and buried
him with his favourite stuffed toy, Clancy. The kids each said goodbye through
their tears and my husband, the man who never had the experience of a pet dog, wept.
We look for Jasper everyday,
forgetting he’s gone. The children are rallying for a new dog and we’ll
probably get one in the spring.
But for now, we remember and
honour our dear friend – Jasper.
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As an update, we did get a
new dog in March 2007. Her name is Jorja (pronounced Georgia), Spring Knight’s
Jorja on My Mind to be exact. She too is an English Springer Spaniel but so
different from our darling Jazzy. She is quieter, more sedate, steadier and
less intelligent. But I love her to death and she loves me – as it should be.
She sleeps beside my bed every night and follows me everywhere I go. She loves
to lie on the bathroom mat when I have a bath and goes camping with us every
summer.
The other half of my “dowry”
– my horse Bobbi – joined Jasper along the windbreak in the summer of 2010.
This is a sacred space to us now; it is not mown and the grass and weeds grow
waist high there every summer. They would both like that – Jasper could hunt
for mice and Bobbi could pull mouthfuls of grass. Heaven.