22/07/2024
Eight years ago, my sweet, gentle and utterly loving slender former-street-dog-for-years Neeki, went to the vet. She was having unusual skin issues, and clearly wasn't well. I learned that she had terminal lymphoma, and would be dead - said the vet - within 2 to 4 weeks. He said that it was an awful death, because as the cancer progressed, she would be less and less able to breathe.
She was perhaps 12 years old.
She came to me through a friend who had retrieved her from the street, after watching her in the neighborhood for over a year. Her front right leg was crippled - hit by a car - and she was terrified of everyone, and everything. Skinny, neglected and frightened, this compassionate friend of mine, whose skill with dog-friendships is legendary, took her off the street, nurtured her, and asked me to take her. I did. She was the kindest person I'd ever known. Chico, especially, loved her, and she had a warm, communicative relationship with Hennessy. Both of them largely kept to themselves, but they hung-out together, often.
After the vet's prognosis, I went home and put her in the bed. She seemed so small, and sad, and frightened, lonely, lost. She did not eat, but drank some water. That night, I held her in my arms most of the night. In the morning, at 6:00 AM on the dot, she died. I buried her in the yard, where, later, she was joined by Licker. Requiescat in pace.
I wrote many poems for her, about her. They helped me to deal with the grief of loss, losing such a sweet, kindly little person who'd suffered so very much. Here is one of several:
The Lychee Tree Gives Neeki Its Leaves
The lychee’s leaves that grace her grave
Sing loud a colored rain.
They willingly would concertize
Our fallen loss and pain.
My forehead presses gravestone rocks
My clouded eyes won’t see.
But still she lives in dying leaves
And cycles green again.
She and Hennessy rode in the car, and often communed as we drove. They were more interested in their friendship than the stuff outside whizzing past. I came across a photo recently, of her, and Henny, sitting together in the passenger's seat and passenger's well. Here it is. May they live forever, in the Heaven provided for all great dogs, awaiting our joyous return to them.
