Dusty's Song

For the first time in 17 years, my day has begun without Dusty. He was my first Sheltie, my first performance dog, and along with that came a lot of other wonderful firsts, too many to list here. Now there are a lot of very sad firsts - last night was the first time he didn't sleep in my arms. I have to take my morning shower, which will wash his scent off of me forever.
Hubby has been very sweet and thoughtful and has tried to minimize the pain as much as he can, but even those acts of kindness bring tears. He laid out the bowls for the dogs' morning meal, but of course Dusty's was missing. Dusty had a little fenced-off area in the basement - covered with pillows and blankets - where he could rest undisturbed by the other dogs while I was at work. That is now gone.
Dusty's life with me began in a condo with a small back yard in California. I was a single girl then. For company he had a huge lop-eared bunny. They were best friends and frequently were cuddled together when I would come home from work. So many changes since then! I became hooked on the sport of Obedience and Herding, which led to Shiloh entering our lives, then of course all the other dogs. It breaks my heart that this blog is titled "Five dogs and a Blonde", but now there are only four. I am so glad I thoroughly enjoyed the brief time we had six dogs here, as we will never have that many at one time again.
I certainly didn't deserve a dog as good as he. As our vet said years ago during a routine check-up, "you can gaze in his eyes and see all the way to his soul, and it is pure." I learned far more from him as to how to be a good being than I ever could have taught him. Now I have to learn how to go on without him.
A few posts ago I wrote about how each dog has his own song. Dusty's song just happened on the radio as we drove home after winning our first ever herding High In Trial, and I was stunned to learn the song was titled "Companions" by David Arkenstone. Fortunately a friend videotaped our run and another friend scored it to that song. It is poor quality for which I apologize, from an old VHS tape, and then taped off of the TV. Seeing us run together again, me picking him up and he giving me kisses bring both smiles and tears right now. I'm so very glad to have this treasure memorialized forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTkn9dUDhPo

Today is a dark and rainy day and the wall of water symbolize the tears that just keep coming. I am blessed to have had 17 wonderful years with my heart-dog. It just went by far too fast.