Gotcha Day--- Year Seven
Seven years ago I planned this event carefully.
I’d pick him up after work, before the Memorial Day weekend,
so we could have extra time for him to get acclimated to his new house and
father. After a long goodbye with his foster family, on May 24, 2012 Tiger Jack
Burke and I were on our way home.
Home is something greyhounds don't really have until they
can lay on the couch, run off with shoes, dig in the yard, destroy squeaky
toys, get smothered with hugs and kisses only to fart at totally the wrong time
and be laughed at instead of scolded.
It’s not a real home until your “person gets you a nice bed,
lets you sleep in theirs, ” And (against their better judgment) buys you more
squeaky toys.
Everything in your life changes when they tell you the
arrangement is permanent--- as in “you’ve run your last race: and “there will
be no more bouncing around.”
Though they may not understand the words coming from our
mouths, greyhounds eventually understand the new routine is for real. They
accept the affection and the two way trust takes over and BOOM! There is love.
It’s an unbreakable bond that is so strong we can’t imagine life without them.
I didn’t think I was ready for a dog and even if I was, what
kind of dog would it be? I loved my Golden Retriever, Sparky, with all my
heart. He passed in 2006 and was so popular, a news story about his passing was
on the local six o’clock news throughout Detroit.
But in the spring of 2012 my heart had an unexpected growth
spurt---suddenly the empty void of loss, longed to be full again and voila!
There was now room inside each of our hearts for a mutual expansion. Just like
jockeying for position in a race, Tiger Jack Burke found the pathway off the
track and landed in my heart.
It’s been seven hilarious years with this guy. Six and a
half have been with his better half, Needa Lou. But this day is about him. His
five o’clock shadow has lightened, but has not gone grey.
He will be 12 in November and has shown no signs of slowing
down. He still leaps 3 feet into the air to catch balls, walks two miles a day
and he still rests his head on my lap as we watch TV. We celebrated with a nice
dinner of succulent chicken breast and warm kibble.
Happy Gotcha Day Jack!
