James Etheridge

While standing in the check-out line at Publix last week, I saw one of the Life special magazines with a friendly-looking golden retriever on the cover. The title of the magazine was “Dogs: Why We Need Them, Why They Need Us.” I’ll buy one of the Life or National Geographic special magazines on impulse every now and then if it is a subject that interests me, but I had to laugh at this one. I don’t need a Life special magazine to tell me why we need our dogs and they need us. The obvious answer is that they need us because we feed them, but it goes much deeper than that. I have seen bumper stickers that say, “The more I’m around people, the more I like my dog.” I have to say that I can understand that.

The bond between man and dog goes back tens of thousands of years. And while it’s true that dogs depend on us for food and shelter, they give us unconditional love and devotion. You can screw up at work, wreck the car on the way home, infuriate your spouse, cause your parents to disown you and your dog won’t care. At the end of the day, he’s just happy to see you.

And we return that unconditional love too, for the most part. Our dogs can soil the rug, chew up an expensive antique, strow garbage all over the floor, or eat up an expensive steak or two counter surfing. Though it may infuriate us at the moment, we usually get over it and forgive them. The hardest thing for we humans to understand is that while a dog may be smarter that a good number of people, the one thing they lack is reasoning. If Lady or Fido are in the back yard and see a cat in the yard across the street or we accidentally leave the gate open, they don’t have the capacity to think, “Well let’s see… If I chase that cat into the woods or wander off through that gate in search of adventure, what if I get lost? How am I going to find my way back home? Do I really want to do this, because I’ve got a pretty good life here. I get fed on a daily basis, sleep with my human in a warm bed, get taken for walks and stay safe and dry in the rain. Nah, I think I’ll just go back and bark at the back door to be let in.” Dogs simply do not have that capacity. They act, for the most part, purely on impulse. That is hard for us to grasp sometimes.

I love all kinds of animals, but especially dogs. I have had a dog for most of my life. I got my first one when I was ten years old. He was a Boston terrier and his name was Bozo. It took me until well into adulthood to warm up to cats. After being around them and owning several, I can honestly say I really love cats. I even like some rodents and most reptiles. I refuse to even discuss snakes.

I came to realize over time that not everyone in my immediate family shared my love for our four-legged friends. My father loved dogs but hated cats. My mother simply did not like animals, period. When my bulldog Sugar died, I was devastated. I called my mother crying hysterically. She calmly said, “Well, you can get you another dog, Sweetie.” “I don’t want another dog,” I told her. “I want Sugar.” “Well, you’ll change your mind.” She had no clue about the pain and loss of losing a beloved and devoted pet.

My step-father didn’t like animals either. Unlike my mother, who would try to act as if she liked them, he made absolutely no bones about it whatsoever. Yet, when my mother was dying, we took our whippet Maggie over to their house during one of our final visits. Maggie walked right up to my mother’s chair, curled up in front of her and did not move. It’s funny how dogs can sense and know things. My step-father and I were sitting on the downstairs patio having a beer. His son, who rescues beagles, burst through the door and shouted, “Dad! There’s a dog upstairs in the sunroom!” “Yeah,” said my step-father, “that’s Maggie.” “Well, you won’t let my dogs come over here,” said my step-brother. “That’s ‘cause your dogs are dogs,” replied my step-father. “Maggie’s not a dog.” He actually petted her when we went back upstairs.

There is a place in Heaven called The Rainbow Bridge. I know it is real and I know it is there. My mother died in 2011 and we lost Maggie in 2014. My step-father passed in 2019. I hope that Maggie greeted Momma on The Bridge and was waiting there with her for my step-father. I truly believe that she was.