In the Nature of All Living Things

To live, and to die.

My aged father-in-law passed away yesterday. Last year, my beloved old father succumbed. In their last hours they waged a mighty struggle against the angel of death. One wonders about that terrible and wonderful will to live, at all costs. The hopeless fight at the end, in view of the other side. We shudder to contemplate it.

One hopes to die in one's sleep, or of a quick and mortal heart attack. Even a fast-moving bus! But maybe that final struggle is the ultimate experience of life. It's the very end, the portal out as birth was the portal in. I don't want to wax too philosophic in a blog about a puppy, but in thinking about life and death, I also begin to think about Sugar's life and eventual death. A dog can live to be twelve, or fourteen, or even sometimes twenty, though I wouldn't want to be that dog.

But Sugar's just so young, happy and blissfully unaware of death. Her very existence in the state of nature and extremely involved in the world of human affairs (at least mine), lend her an air of enchantment. She straddles worlds, participates in our life, has no worries about daily survival and no fears that there will ever be an end to the filling of her food bowl. A dog's life -- a least a toy Poodle's. How divine.

And when the grim reaper comes for Sugar, she will accept it with composure, just as she accepts all of life with composure (except for squirrels and the mailman). She'll be old. She'll lie down and sigh. There will be no question of acceptance. It will just be. She will let it be.

But how will I feel? Only humans agonize over the unavoidable and the inevitable. Because we have the awareness to cherish life, not just live it. It's the greatest gift. God said, "Choose life!" And we try, we try to the very last spasm of breath.

I believe strongly in an afterlife. I know there are dear ones waiting for me. The ancient Egyptians used to embalm their dogs and cats and take them along to the next world. I think that would be asking a lot of a modern dog. I shall not ask that of Sugar, should she outlive me. But honestly, I'm growing to love her at an alarming rate and don't know how I will make do without her on the other side. Not that she does anything for me besides chew my slippers and get sick on the dining room carpet. Nevertheless, we begin to bond strongly with our pets as we do with our human loved ones. A dog in one's life, I'm learning, is an added bonus of life, a rock-hard facet that glitters with always-requited love.