The picture is my husband Richard holding our precious Rain. She was such a baby.
So here it is Monday afternoon and the tears, they still commeth. Maybe not as constantly as the first few days, but they do still fall. I took off work today and got together four bags of her belongings which I took to the local SPCA. I know that Rain would be happy and pleased to know that some other dogs at a shelter would have some enjoyment with her toys. I didn’t want to cry, but I did and they gave me a receipt and that receipt will go into Rain’s scrapbook which I will be putting together over the next week or so. I’ve already amassed nearly 250 pictures. I just had this smile etched on my face with tears trickling down my cheeks as I looked at pictures from when she was a puppy in 2003 and then all the way through 2009. Sadly, I don’t seem to have any recent pictures of her. Probably because my husband became so ill last March, 2010 that pictures were the last thing from my mind. If I would’ve only known then I could’ve taken another 250 pictures of this beautifully photogenic dog. What a ham she was too. She could pose better than any dog I’ve seen, including most Best of Show winners.
Still, my heart and mind are filled with pictures of her. Maybe I will find that one special camera put away in a drawer that will have a few precious, more recent, photos of her.
But for now, the house is so damn quiet, so lonely. Everytime I would get up to go someplace in the house she would follow me. She had a bed between our chairs that she would lie in and we would rub her belly, scratch her head. She had another bed behind my recliner where she curled up most of the time, her little nest so to speak. They’re both gone now and all of the fur she left behind is gone as well. However, and I know this is kind of spooky, after I got home today, after carting off a huge bag of toys, while I was sitting in the livingroom, one of four toys I decided to keep for memories squeaked. It’s just too much to understand, but I take it all as a sign that she knows I loved her so much and that she’s safe, not hurting anymore, and having fun romping with the other animals.
People who don’t understand will say, “It’s only a dog.” But for those of us who know better, for those of us who have been blessed with the special love only a loving dog or cat can provide, Rain was not just a dog. Rain was an angel who happened to have four legs, large brown eyes, a beautiful curving tail that would lie on her back, a long spotted tongue, and four paws where the hair grew so long that I called them her ‘wookie’ feet. And she had this way of speaking **yes, speaking** that sounded like Chubaka. There was not a person who didn’t fall in love with her once they realized that her bark was not nearly as scarey as it seemed to be.
I also called Thundershirt today to see about returning the thundershirt that I ordered for Rain because she hated thunder. It came last Thursday and Rain was gone to doggie heaven on Friday evening. I guess thunder will never bother her again thankfully.
Ah crap, what can I say but that I miss her terribly and will do so for a very, very, very long time. She was this tiny little furry angel that came into my life in 2003 and will now forever be the beautiful dog that will lead me forward and be there on the other side of the bridge when I’m eventually called home in the coming years. In fact, she’ll be there with Sheena and I will feel very safe, secure, and extremely loved.
