About Me
- Frances Ogilvie
- From the small town I call home, Philippines
- Hello, I'm Chai and you've never probably heard of me until now. I may be familiar to you because I've met you once when our souls crossed paths. In my past life, I was probably a princess living in Old England, or a World War II chronicler assigned to document the devastation in what is now called Turkey. I may have been a street urchin or a painter or an old Hollywood actress once. But the life I've chosen to hold on to is the life I'm living in right now and I'm glad I can share it with you.:)
Is There Such Thing As Dog Heaven?
Today, we mourn the loss of a member of our family.
As of 7:00A.M, May 3rd 2010, our dog Presley died due to asphyxiation. It was his own leash that killed him.
May 3rd was supposed to be a good day for me and my family. It's the birthday of my best friend Theza and I've been looking forward to going to her house and celebrating with her. It's also a holiday. So my parents were both home and they had something to look forward too--the arrival of Presidentiable Noynoy Aquino and Vice Presidentiable Mar Roxas. We've been wanting to join the motorcade eversince word broke out that they were paying a visit in our town. We were all excited. We were supposed to be happy.
It's funny how unlikely things turn out sometimes.
This morning our mom woke us all up with a start, telling us frantically about Presley.
"Namatay si Presley!" She was hysterical.
My siblings and I woke up and no one believed or wanted to believe what we were hearing. Presley seemed to be so alive only the night before. What happened to him? Apparently by asphyxiation. He got tangled in his own leash. The very same leash he's had since almost a year ago.
You can just imagine the shock and pain we were experiencing. My siblings didn't move for a while but the urgency of the situation instantly had them running down from the room. And I just stood by the top of the stairs, staring into space. I really really can't believe it.
At first, I didn't want to see his lifeless face and energetic self lying cold and dead on the ground so I went back to bed and cried silent tears. It wasn't until my dad went to our room that made me decide that I had to force myself to bid my Presley a final goodbye.
You see, my dad is a normally tough person. He's our rock. Nothing gets to him. But when he saw Presley dead, he broke down too. He's attached to him because he's the first person Presley will always remember because my dad bought him. He was the one who took him home. Everytime dad gets home from work, Presley will always be excited; standing on his two hind legs and reaching out to dad until he pets him. I could imagine how hard it is for my dad. Presley is one of his stress relievers.
When I saw Presley, that just did it for me. Tears really fell unchecked. It was like losing a member of your family. He's the most charming dog I've known my entire life. Seeing him lifeless brought me a kind of pain which I will never be able to recover from. It sucked even more when I saw daddy trying to revive him by shaking him and calling out "Presley! Presley!" several times. It was literally like a scene from a movie.
I touched Presley and his fur felt the same; it was still soft but unlike when he was alive, he'd respond to my gesture by rubbing his head back on my palm and his tail would wag fast. His being motionless was proof enough that he was gone for good. As I watched my eldest brother dig a grave for our baby Presley, I continued crying. Life wasn't fair. We didn't have enough chances with him. My siblings and I were planning several trips which we would take Presley with us but none of those pushed through because he was gone too soon. Heck, this might sound crazy but we don't even have pictures with him. We just thought that we would have enough time for that because he was a healthy dog, he never gave us problems regarding his health. How wrong we were. Because apparently in this world we live in, life is too short. Even for those we just consider as pets.
As I write this blog, I am still crying and I'm having a hard time seeing things right because the tears are blurring my vision. It's that hard to accept. I have grown so fond of Presley because I was the one who named him. When I had a chance in the past, I took him with us when we went jogging. And this summer, when I was bored, I'd take him out of the house for a walk because I know that he was tired of the house too. And he's hard to forget simply because we have treated him like a member of our family.
Who ever said dogs are man's best friend had no idea how much of an understatement he was making.
It was time to bury him. As dad laid him on the ground, I looked back on the times I always bid him goodbye every time the family was going somewhere. He seemed okay with it. After all, he knew we were coming back for him. But as he was buried, I muttered, "Good bye Presley." I realized that it would be the last of a thousand times I'll ever get to do that. And this time, it's the other way around--now he's the one leaving but we will never be okay with it because we know he's never coming back.
As my good friend Pacific told me as I shared my anguish on Facebook,
"Such is life. Which is why dogs don't hate us when we hurt them, their lives end seven times faster than us, they don't have the time. So they spend their years loving their owners unconditionally. :)"
Is there such thing as dog heaven? Because I honestly think there is.
I comfort myself and my little sister by telling her that I'd like to think thatPresley
has just gone to a permanent vacation. And where he is, he's always being pampered and experiencing the life of dog royalty--the most wonderful massage, a nice foot spa, excellent grooming and best of all,the dog food never runs out. It is in this paradise wherehe never got hurt.
And in this place, along with millions of other loved puppies who were gone too soon, he is HAPPY.
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1 comments:
i don't really know how much pain it felt to lose Presley because i never really had a real pet but i hope you feel better soon. ):
i once cried myself to sleep when our nameless dove died sooo... i could only imagine how much more painful it would be for you. ganbare. :)
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