Looking for his Friend
Written by Susan Raatz. All rights reserved.
My Yellow Labrador Retriever Popeye came into my life from my husband. A Christmas gift in the year 2003. It was a “if you loved me you would get me that dog” Christmas gift. It was, the last Christmas gift I received from him.
My husband died unexpectedly at the young age of 54 of a brain aneurysm. Our new dog Popeye had just gotten quite attached to him and he was going to show me just how attached he had become in the days following his sudden departure.
In the days following his death, Popeye seemed to wonder around the house sniffing and looking into crevices and corners looking for the person who matched the scent that remained within the house. With the bustle of funeral plans it became apparent that this poor dog was demonstrating to us that he, too, was grieving for his lost friend.
Popeye slept at the end of my bed. On one particular evening Popeye walked and walked around the room seeming to be looking for something. After watching him move about the room I watched him as he poked his head into the closet and within seconds pulled out a flannel shirt now hanging from his mouth..the flannel shirt of his friend.
Popeye took that shirt to his pillow and carefully and almost meticulously gathered it into a ball and slowly and gently dropped his head into it as if it were a pillow. He rested his head there moving it back and forth almost like a child who clutches a “blankie” for comfort.
This ritual continued for several nights and then one evening Popeye went to his bed leaving the flannel shirt off to the side. Thinking that he might want it I moved it towards his bed. Seeing that he rose and walked slowly away waiting for me to take the shirt from his bed.
I think Popeye was telling me that evening that after a long and sad journey to find his friend, he had found him in the scent of that flannel shirt. Sleeping with the shirt reassured him the the scent he had discovered was in fact the friend who had gone away.
I will always remember those evenings and I still tear up thinking of the love this young dog had for the man who brought him into my life. I knew then that the “if you loved me you would get me that dog” Christmas gift is the most wonderful gift a woman could receive.
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