In 2002, when we left for our senior year of college, we took our family dog, Sophie, with us. She was already a little old lady Shih Tzu, who preferred the company of people over dogs (see picture, with our housemate Derrick). She used to follow us from room to room, wherever we went, and preferred to be carried rather than walking herself. She was a big hit with the college crowd (one time our roommates got her stoned and she rolled around on the carpet with vertigo for an hour) and enjoyed going to parties. We used to imagine that she had the voice and personality of Angela Lansbury, and that as she sat in the corner of a room full of drunken seniors, she’d look around and begin singing, in her head, “Tale as old as time…”It was with her that we first realized, a gay man with an attitude can take a small dog anywhere, even restaurants and grocery stores.
Sophie died yesterday at the ripe old age of 15. As anybody who has ever had a dog knows, they become a very important part of your life. We have specific childhood memories of explaining to Sophie, and our other dog Ribsy, things that we didn’t feel comfortable discussing with anybody else. It sounds absurd, but sometimes it really helped to get things out – including, as we recall, the fact that we were gay. Our dogs probably knew before anybody else did. (Oh, let’s be honest, they knew ever since that time we made them wear mittens before going out to play in the snow).
Yesterday, our big brother reminded us of an old Will Rogers quote, which we find to be quite true:
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
We should be so lucky.
8 comments:
And then we got older and the lyric from "Beauty and the Beast" we REALLY identified with was "Barely even friends, then somebody bends, unexpectedly..." Am I right?
R.I.P. Sophie!
Very sorry for your loss, bigmouth. Losing a dog is never easy. People who scoff that they're "just animals" just don't get it.
I just wanted to give you my condolences. I too lost my dog of 14 years just 3 weeks ago. It is one of the hardest things to go through. My thoughts are with you.
Sorry to hear about your dog.
what a beautiful girl she was.
rest in peace, little sophie.
Sorry to hear about Sophie. But I must say I'm a little relieved that she's not going to be able to tell about everything she witnessed at Bitch House.
that is very sad to hear. i had two dogs who each lived to about 13/14yrs old (so for more than half my life). the first dog i found in the morning since he went while sleeping that night, and the second just sort of decided after 14 years to run off.
good memories and emotional attachments which i found odd since i'm generally emotionally empty.
sorry for your loss. when you stumble just remember thats her getting tangled in your feet
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