When we moved here Pete and Buddy, our dogs, came with us, so did Missi and Power, our horses. We always sort of laughed that all of us were old and who knew who would go first, us or them. Then as we got a little older we just sort of smiled because we knew and we know that all things have a life cycle and you just never know.
Buddie passed away a couple years ago. He was just short of worthless but probably one of the happiest animals we've ever had on the place. And mercy could he swim! One day he didn't want to go back to his pen and swam around in our lake for hours evading hubby until finally he was totally exhausted and hubby pulled him out of the lake before he drowned. At the time, hubby was definitely threatening him bigtime but hubby would never let him drown. It's just that Buddie was so infuriating!!!
Pete mourned when Buddy died, you could tell; but Pete was crazy about hubby and he didn't like sharing him at all, so he was glad to have hubby all to himself again. He wouldn't get vicious but when another dog would come around hubby his legs would go stiff and his back would go up and you'd hear that slow, low growl as if he were saying, "He's mine - get away!!" and by golly, they did too!! One of the things hubby always wanted to do was to get our 2 sons back together as full grown men and go pheasant hunting again like they did when they were all younger and a few years ago he managed to pull it off and, yes, right there beside them was their trusty hunting dog, Pete!! Pete taught me to cook just a little extra. There was nothing more gratifying than watching him eat a little leftover gravy, roast beef or a biscuit. He sure did like people food. But the bottom line is Pete loved hubby with an unwavering, dedicated, jealous and patient love and Hubby loved him! It was a mutual love that comes with a mutual understanding that only a dog and his man truly get. Even I didn't quite understand it.
Hubby buried Pete last night. I sat on the deck steps and watched him go down over the hill and then watched him come back. This was a man and his dog thing. We will miss Pete. We really will.