When a Million Years Has Passed, (We Will Have Only Just Begun)

They say lightning never strikes twice in one place.

Well, I don’t know about lightning, but Shih Tzu’s do. Long story short (because both stories would take longer to tell), but my wife and I inherited our Buddy and Queenie during the course of almost twenty years; in very much the same unique manner.

Buddy wandered up in our front yard in 1996. Queenie wandered up in someone else’s front yard in 2013, and, ultimately, my wife and I became the proud benefactors of the little pooch. So inestimably unlikely, since we’re talking about two instances in which an expensive breed of dog “made their debut” in the exact same manner, and ended up in one domicile.

Buddy went on to her, (yes, her) reward in 2006. Queenie is still with us, and very much alive.

Though to look at photos of the two little ladies side by side, they might have been twin sisters, they could not have been any more different; at least in terms of their personality and behavior.

Buddy was more aloof, and tended to “camp out” six or eight feet away, whereas Queenie is a bit more personable, and occasionally lies next to one or the other of us as we watch television. Queenie enjoys our morning and afternoon strolls, whereas Buddy strained at the leash every time I attempted to walk her down the block. (I, eventually, wound up carrying that precious pooch one way, after which she was content to walk the return half of the journey). Buddy gladly “did her business” in the yard, whereas Queenie rejects that option every time. Buddy, as previously implied, was a homebody, and we allowed her to sit unsupervised in the back yard, whereas Queenie is strictly a leash dog. (Once or twice we accidently left Buddy outside, and she scratched on the door ‘til we let her in, while the one time Queenie managed to steal out the door, unobserved, she ended up a hundred yards down the street. Thankfully, a neighbor girl retrieved her, and brought her home).

Speaking of lightning striking twice, (well, once in this case) did I mention that Queenie wandered up in a thunder storm? (Well, she did). And, of course, ever since that time she becomes deathly afraid when the Florida rain, lightning and thunder make their daily rounds each summer, and she begs to be picked up.

And though the personalities and behavior patterns of these two lookalikes have been remarkably different, a common variable is the love they have invested in us, and we in them. They are and will always be… family. Anyone who has ever known and loved a dog will immediately understand. Anyone who hasn’t will continue to treat that notion as a theory.

Did I mention I’ve owned two additional pooches in my lifetime? (Well, I have). Princess was my childhood b&w Cocker Spaniel. Lucy was our slightly overweight Corgi.

There’s a cartoon out there which never ceases to bring tears to my eyes. In it we see St. Peter sitting on a cloud at the entrance of the pearly gates. Next to him is an obviously excited little pooch. In the foreground is an elderly man; just arriving at heaven’s portals.

The caption?

“Hi Henry. Rex, here, has been ‘going on’ about you for the last 50 years!”

I have a hope, no, an expectation that not only will I see my Princess, and Buddy, and Lucy, and Queenie again one day, but that we will renew and resume an all too brief friendship that we once enjoyed, and when a million years has passed, we will have only just begun.

 

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 5