Worthy Cause

Today I received a really sweet e-mail from my friend Jacqueline.

Jacqueline is a dog lover--a real dog lover. She's one of those people some other people consider a bit nuts for the depth of devotion given to their canine "children", but others of us completely understand. Like Teri and me, Darren and Jacqueline don't have human kids of their own and they lavish love and attention on their two very special canines. Not too long ago she sent several people some incredibly cute pictures of her babies asking our input on which she should submit for possible inclusion in an upcoming golden retriever calendar.

Their two great dogs, Ben and Zee (pictured above), both came to them through the good work of Adopt A Golden Atlanta, an organization Darren and Jacqueline enthusiastically support. This is also the group producing the aforementioned calendar as a fund raiser. Zee is a sweet and somewhat shy dark coated golden retriever, while Ben has a light coat. Ben has the intelligence and temperament of a golden retriever but tacked on to the broad body of a great pyrenees, which I think is what the other half of Ben's lineage actually is. Ben is one very cool dog.

Jacqueline was writing to let me know she had donated to Adopt A Golden in memory of Callie The Wonder Dog. Most of you know that Callie, our golden retriever and best friend for the last 13 years, was in the late stages of a terminal bout with cancer, and last Saturday we took her to the vet to end her pain.

Here's a link to the "memories" page of Adopt A Golden. I just wish Jacqueline had warned me about the poem at the top of the page--it was beautiful but hit me like a ton of bricks. I told Teri not to go there until she was home and had some time and definitely not to read it when she was at work.

I made a little donation of my own in Callie's name to Adopt A Golden Atlanta a few minutes ago. It wasn't in this month's budget, but I don't think Teri will mind.

Several times a day I catch myself wondering why Callie isn't in my office checking up on me or I'll think I need to get up and let her out or feed her or check her water bowl. Of course I quickly realize the water bowl isn't there any more, and neither is Callie. My sister Carol warned me about this. She said this happened to her for quite a while after her beloved dog Scooter died in 2005.

It's going to be a very quiet weekend at Chez Henley. As I write this Teri is making her way to the Sandestin Resort for an advertising convention that will run through Saturday night. I've mentioned before how much I dislike being at home alone when Teri is away on a business trip, and how I'm completely aware of the hypocrisy involved in that attitude since I'm sure I've spent a thousand or more nights away on business over the course of our marriage.

With Callie and Teri both away on business, I'll be left with only Scram our stray Katrina cat to keep me company. Scram is one of the world's great cats, but he's only one of the world's great cats if you happen to be Teri. Those two are tightly bonded--Scram can take or leave the rest of the world, including yours truly.

Scram will likely show up only long enough to eat and try to stomp on my keyboard while I'm working. In fact he just hopped on my lap in an effort to distract me. The rest of the time he'll be on patrol in the Bayberry Woods, a kitty paradise.

Speaking of paradise, most evenings Teri and I spend some time in our comfy chairs on the back porch and discuss, well, just about everything. These times on the porch just talking are almost always the best part of our day. A couple of days ago I said it seemed like there was a hole at our feet where Callie should be flopped as she eavesdropped on our conversation. I told Teri I could almost literally see her there, and she said she was having the same experience. Then we talked about whether good dogs go to Heaven.

There's no theological support in our faith for the idea that dogs have souls, so that kind of rules out the idea, I pointed out.

"Just the same, on the day I get to Heaven, I really hope that Callie is there waiting for me with the body she had in her prime. I want her to be dancing, with her tail wagging and asking me where I've been," Teri said.

Yeah. That would be great.