*****
Death smells like mushrooms.
I lean over and kiss Woody’s furry little face for the umpteenth time. This thought is like a cloud in front of sharp, shooting, all-at-once pain that I have never known before. My Baby is dying and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it, so … I will never eat shitake mushrooms again.
I look him right in the eyes and ask, “Are you ready to go now? Because I’ll – gulp – help you.” He gives me a panicky look that, to me, screams, “Hell, no!”
I vowed years ago never to keep Woody alive because I am the one with separation issues. My job, it seems suddenly so clear to me, is to help him make the journey to Dog Heaven, or wherever it is that’s next. But I also know this is the hardest walk I will ever take with m’boy.
He looks up at me with the same searching brown eyes I fell in love with nearly fourteen years ago. We lived in San Diego then – clear across the country and a lifetime ago, literally. As I sit here in our South Florida living room I suddenly hate it and all it represents: the last house we lived in together, my best buddy and me.
Death smells like mushrooms.
I lean over and kiss Woody’s furry little face for the umpteenth time. This thought is like a cloud in front of sharp, shooting, all-at-once pain that I have never known before. My Baby is dying and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it, so … I will never eat shitake mushrooms again.
I look him right in the eyes and ask, “Are you ready to go now? Because I’ll – gulp – help you.” He gives me a panicky look that, to me, screams, “Hell, no!”
I vowed years ago never to keep Woody alive because I am the one with separation issues. My job, it seems suddenly so clear to me, is to help him make the journey to Dog Heaven, or wherever it is that’s next. But I also know this is the hardest walk I will ever take with m’boy.
He looks up at me with the same searching brown eyes I fell in love with nearly fourteen years ago. We lived in San Diego then – clear across the country and a lifetime ago, literally. As I sit here in our South Florida living room I suddenly hate it and all it represents: the last house we lived in together, my best buddy and me.
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