Tag: contemplation

Times of reflection

This is a sad day. In fact make that a sad week or even month. As many of my readers will know, I have a wonderful group of friends around the world who I laugh, cry and be silly with. Recently however there have been more occasions upon which I have reflected on sad news arriving in my Twitter (for that is what it was when I joined) feed.

Over the last few weeks I have found out that so many of my friends have been making their final and longest journeys over the Rainbow Bridge. Since March we have lost Sweeney, Sunny, Remy, Dawson and Mischa and my good friend Harvey. Now, today I have seen the news that one of my oldest friends has made her final journey to the everlasting meadow. All are mourned, all are remembered and all are thought of in lighter and happier times. All are missed, particularly by their human guardians and assistants.

Today I saw that Curfew made her journey. She lived in Thailand with her dad. Curfew was one of the very first pals who greeted me with love, warmth and friendliness when I arrived in my new home in December 2013 and started my online presence soon thereafter. She was always getting up to silly things, eating naughty things and being loved by her dad and her friends around the world. Curfew showed us all some sides of her local culture that maybe people didn’t know about. She was always exploring and making new friends. Her dad would give her baths, which Curfew complained about, however it was very warm weather and I think she knew he always had her best interests at heart. A kind, warm friendly and loving pal, Curfew had some medical issues to deal with but these were encountered with stoicism and bravery. She was just over 15 years old when her body and mind told her that it was time for the final trip over the Rainbow Bridge to the everlasting meadow, where the sun always shines warmly upon our fur. Those who have made the journey before her will show the way and they will be ready to make her comfortable in the place where the squirrels run slowly.

I know that our times will come, all of us must make our journey and we will leave behind our humans who will be broken hearted but we always take a piece of our humans heart with us for safe keeping. Run free Curfew, Sunny, Remy, Dawson, Mischa Harvey… All of you have fulfilled your task down here and now you can rest, easy in the knowledge that you made humans feel love, fun, laughter and contentment.

Farewell but never goodbye.

The psyche of a beagle

There once was a beagle. He was found wandering in a lane in Wales and was picked up and transported to a rescue centre in Buckinghamshire. Whilst he was there he found a home, however he wasn’t at the home for very long as he ran out of a gate and tried to play with cars. He was returned to the rescue centre. He then found himself whisked away once more, after 4 months or so, to another home. This time it was his forever home, although he didn’t know it at the time.

As he hadn’t had much in the way of socialisation or training he had to teach his new parents, pretty much from scratch, how to look after a beagle and pander to his every need. Things got off to a slow start and there were quite a few times that frustration got the better of everyone involved and sometimes there were some tears. However everyone knew they had to make the training succeed so they persevered, tried harder to understand what each other wanted and sought to find alternate ways of engaging with this beagle. After eighteen months or so, he started to settle in and feel a little more at home. He ran away three times in the first six months and each time he realised that it wasn’t very clever and it worried his parents very much as they were growing more attached to him as the days went by. The fears and doubts that had plagued him in his formative days in his new home gradually started to melt away as he realised that he was becoming more familiar with his house, the routine of the day and the parents he had chosen to look after him. His parents showed him love and guided him along the path toward some degree of normality in his life. Having said that there was still this distance in his eyes sometimes, that he was still not fully attached or that he was still not quite sure why he was here and what he was supposed to do. He still tried to escape at pretty much every opportunity and would regularly try to pull from the socket, the arm of whoever he was shackled to.

Then one day a nine month old rescue pup beagle was dropped into his world and it was like a hand grenade going off. For the first week of this new arrival, they fought and squabbled like a couple of feral children. In fact they fought and squabbled so much that it was close to his young pal being returned. However the situation relented and his new young protege was allowed to stay and flourish under the older beagles tutelage. Both beagles became familiar with one another, their surroundings and generally their lives together was becoming better. However the older beagle still showed signs of unrest on some occasions, usually when he was in the garden and being asked to come into the house for his food. Bribes or treats sometimes worked but on other occasions there was little that would sway him to consider returning indoors to eat his food. It was almost as if he felt that he was being trapped on occasion, whilst at other times, he would freely enter the house and join in with the ritual breakfast, dinner or supper inhalation.

Then the family moved to a new home and the younger beagle settled really quickly whilst the older beagle followed each of his parents around, in case they disappeared and he may be left an orphan once more. He would follow them from one room to another, stand directly behind them when food was being prepared, watch them whilst they were sitting down talking and would watch them from his bed when he should have been sleeping. Many of these time he could hardly keep his eyes open. His parents wondered and worried that he might still have something in his past that revisited his mind on occasion. They couldn’t work out what it was however they tried to make the routine simple immediately they had moved into the new home. After two weeks or so it appeared that the beagle in question had followed his brothers lead and started to relax and understand that his new surroundings were his home. However the older beagle then began regressing into old habits, where he would stand in the garden baying loudly, would refuse to come back into the house for food, would watch his parents as they went from one room to another and whine loudly if someone left the house. His parents wondered if they would ever understand the psyche of the beagle in question.

They decided that they probably wouldn’t so they would just give Dex love and comfort anyway.