Ernest, who describes himself here at DogFull as a pit bull owner, wrote this beautiful article and says: “I wrote this several years ago in memory of Bolo, a black and white pit bull who was always out for walks, until the day he died.
He may have only gone 15 feet before stopping, looking at me and saying, ‘I can’t go any further.’ But don’t think for a minute that I’m done walking.’”
The experience of losing a dog is universal for all pet parents. I hope Ernest’s words of wisdom help you, or someone you know, even a little.
“Some of you, particularly those who think you have recently lost a dog to ‘death’, really don’t understand this. I haven’t had any desire to explain myself, but I won’t be here forever and I must.
Dogs never die. They don’t know how to do it. They get tired, they become very old and their bones hurt. Of course they don’t die.
If they did, they wouldn’t always want to go out for a walk, even long after their old bones said, ‘No, no, that’s not a good idea.’ Let’s not go out for a walk. No, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might take one step before their aging tendons collapse them to the ground, but that’s what dogs are. They walk.
It’s not that they don’t like your company. On the contrary, a walk with you is all there is. His boss and the cacaphonous symphony of smells that is the world.
Cat poop, another dog’s mark, a rotten chicken bone (exultation) and you. That is what makes their world perfect, and in a perfect world death has no place.
However, dogs are very sleepy. That’s the point, you see. They don’t teach you that at the fancy university where they explain quarks, gluons and Keynesian economics. They know so much that they forget that dogs never die. It’s a shame, really. Dogs have a lot to offer and people talk a lot.
When you think your dog has died, he has simply fallen asleep in your heart. And by the way, he wags his tail like crazy, you see, and that’s why your chest hurts so much and you cry all the time. Who wouldn’t cry with a happy dog wagging its tail on their chest?
Oh! Wap wap wap wap wap, that hurts. But they only move when they wake up. That’s when they say, ‘Thanks boss! Thank you for a warm place to sleep and always next to your heart, the best place.’
When they first fall asleep, they wake up all the time and that’s why, of course, you cry all the time. Wap, wap, wap. After a while they sleep more. (Remember, a dog while is not a human while. You take your dog for a walk, in an hour it is a day full of adventures.
Then you come home and a week passes, well, one of your days, but a week, really, before the dog goes out for a walk again. No wonder they like walks.)
Anyway, as I said, they fall asleep in your heart and when they wake up they wag their tail. After a few years as a dog, they take longer naps and you would too.
They were a GOOD DOG their entire lives and they both know it. It gets exhausting being a good dog all the time, especially when you get older and your bones hurt and you fall on your face and you don’t want to go outside to pee when it’s raining, but do it anyway, because you’re a good dog. .
So understand that after you have been sleeping in your heart, you will sleep more and more.
But don’t be fooled. They are not “dead.” In reality, there is no such thing. They are sleeping in your heart and will wake up, usually when you don’t expect it. It’s just who they are.
I feel sorry for people who don’t have sleeping dogs in their hearts. You have missed a lot. “Excuse me, I have to go cry now.”
Thank you Ernesto for sharing this with us. Bolo was a very lucky Pit Bull.
This is one of our favorite articles here at DogFull and we come back to it again and again. Be sure to share this with everyone you know who loves dogs.