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| Family Dog having a siesta in the afternoon |
For a number of years I had a best friend; his name was Tubby.
He was a beautiful dog, he might well have been one of the strays our family adopted.
From the time I was about seven or eight until I was twelve, Tubby and I went everywhere together, except when I walked the hour to and back from school every day.
He would sit at the gate and wait for my pat on his head when I went off.
When I came back home, he would know the time, and be sitting there waiting for me.
Such joy
I couldn't trick Tubby.
When it was my Tennis practice lesson on Wednesday, he would arrive at the gate shortly before the later time I was due to arrive back home.
And when I arrived home, you would have thought the Queen Of All The World had arrived.
He was be in such joy, barking, jumping up and dispensing affection and respect.
I loved Tubby as much as any member of my family.
The Guardian
One time I fell really ill, and was off school a week - a most unusual occurrence for me in my early years, when I was blessed with good health at the time.
Tubby disappeared for the week, which I found a bit odd, but each to his own, I thought, as I lay in bed reading 'What Katy did' and enjoying the care as my parents nursed me back to health.
After the week was over, Tubby arrived back, full of bonhomie to escort me to the gate and watch me off to school.
When I got to school, I got a number of odd looks from my fellow students and teachers, but shrugged it off. As soon as I got into the classroom, I taxed my classmates for not bringing me my homework to do as they had faithfully promised to do while I was sick.
'We couldn't,' they said. 'The first day five minutes before school started on the Monday, a little shaggy white dog arrived into the classroom, and growled if any of us tried to put him out.
He went to lie in your desk with his chin on his paws, and would not let anyone near your desk.
He wouldn't leave, and slept in the classroom.
It was almost as if he was guarding your desk.
The third day he was losing weight, so we gave him food and water.
Once or twice he would go to the door, wait to be let out, and come back a few minutes later.
Then when the week was over, he got up, and went out.
We were all a little scared, really.
He was almost like a ghost.'
I was thoughtful. 'Oh, that must have been Tubby, my dog,' I said. 'He disappeared while I was sick, and came back as soon as I was better.
I thought he looked a little skinny.'
My schoolmates looked at me with an odd expression in their eyes.
'Had he ever walked with you to school before?'
'Never,' I answered.
'Then how did he know the way?'
They looked at me again.
'Such faithfulness,' they muttered.
Tubby never came to school again, but was thrilled when I rubbed the scruff of his neck, and told him what a clever lad he was to protect my desk.
When I was twelve, my youngest brother was just a toddler.
We had taken in a large stray who had been maltreated and was nervy and angry as a result.
He got out of the back yard (I still don't know how) and got into the front, saw my little brother toddling along the garden path and threw himself with his teeth bared at my little brother's throat.
I was walking in the garden chatting to Tubby, and screamed, throwing myself between the dog and my toddler brother - but I was just too far away, I would never have got there in time.
I saw Tubby launch into the air, offering his throat to the dog, whose teeth snapped into his throat just in front of my little brother.
My mom ran out into the garden, other people came.
I did everything to try to prise the stray's teeth from my little friend's throat, but he hung on, savaging Tubby.
Eventually he let go, and people who had scrambled to corner the stray who had been more affected by the mistreatment he had previously undergone than we had realised.
I cradled my little dog in my arms in the kitchen.
His blood was running freely onto the floor as this little martyr was dying.
I looked into those dear brown eyes as he looked at me with such love, as if to say, 'You are so great, you can do anything. Please heal me.'
I was sobbing as my little heart began breaking, praying he could be saved.
Then Tubby's eyes showed a deep resignation, and he just closed his eyes as that dearest and most faithful of friends left me bereft.
Do dogs go to heaven?
Forty years later, I still think of Tubby every day.
People ask me, 'Do dogs have souls? Do dogs go to heaven?'
Well, it's like this.
My dog offered his life for my brother.
Greater love than that no spirit has.
And my happiness has never ever been fully complete since I lost my best friend.
I look forward every day to meeting him again when my time comes to complete the blessing of this life, and step into the eternal next one.
I know just how wonderful a spirit a dog has.
The older dog was taken into care after this terrible incident.
The mistreatment and beatings he had received before being rescued by my dad had broken his spirit to the point he could no longer safely fit into regular society.
Reports of bad treatment
Reports of bad treatment to our loving companions and friends in the animal world have been received by Lumiere.
In one link sent to us, a suffering dog ran through a carpark while burning to death.
This image has led people to call on South Korea to stop burning dogs and cats alive.
The poor dog ran into a garage and triggered a fire which gutted the structure in in Yongin, a city South of Seoul earlier this year.
Animals are being martyred for their meat. Horrifying tales of their suffering are being made public. Please sign a petition to Stop The Torture and Consumption of Dogs And Cats
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION
http://www.change.org/petitions/south-korea-please-stop-the-torture-and-consumption-of-dogs-and-cats#share
See links for information
http://www.causes.com/actions/1726754-south-korea-stop-burning-dogs-alive?ctm=recommended_activities
http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2013/01/23/burning-dog-sparks-public-outcry-in-south-korea
Dog Meat Market Undercover Video; Undercover Video from Korea Animal Welfare Association
http://animalrightskorea.org/dog-meat-issue/dog-meat-market-undercover-video.html
*Photograph taken by Catherine Nicolette
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