A Man And His Dogs

Tuesday night we rented and watched Marley And Me, a movie I have been avoiding watching due to a fear that I might react to it in a most non-male manner. There is something about movies mixing end of life and canines that will stir deep emotions in boys and men. The reactions in such flicks are stronger than during Bang The Drum Slowly or Brian's Song. If one wants to test the sensitivity of a grown man, plop him down in front of a T.V. set (or movie screen) and show him Old Yeller, or similar. As Marley And Me ended, I thought of the pets my family or I have had and how they left this earth. Towzer, a wire hair terrier died as a result of a dog fight where he was on the receiving end of 3-4 other dogs punishment. He was the dog I knew as a child and died when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. During his final hour, I was busy playing a hockey game that my team lost. My brother's dog, Bear, an Old English Sheep Dog mix that he got when I was in the 4th grade succumbed to kidney failure when I was in college. When I was a Junior in college, my brother's next dog had a litter and I was given a pure white Shepherd/Malamute/Siberian mix with one blue eye and one brown eye. I named her Freyja and nicknamed her the "white wolf." She died suddenly some 7 years later while I was working for the forest service in South Dakota. Her litter mate, Marja died of old age a few years later. My wife had a poodle, Frisky, who suffered from old age/kidney failure was put down in the late '90s. Tungsten, a Siberian/Malamute/Whatever mix died after a seizure somewhere around 2001. Zmboni, a whatever mutt mix became ill, (some form of enteropothy) and was put down at the young age of 4. Narvik, another Husky mix died of old age 2 days before I was going to "do the deed." To this day, I believe she let herself go to save me the pain. I remember having lunch at a restaurant with friends when I felt a sudden "flash" and knew she had passed. Despite my daughter being alive for Tungsten and Zamboni, she was old enough to understand the finality of Narvik. For the next year, she blamed her grouchy moods on the loss of Narvik. This continued until we let her know that Narvik was no longer an excuse. We currently have a Yellow Lab named Star and a medium sized black "Rez Special" named Bear. I am not prepared for when what happens in movies happens to them. When the time comes, I will need to watch a movie about a sports hero who contracts a terminal disease and dies a long, painful agonizing death to cheer myself up.