Ms. Cho says good bye

[seaboy4hire]

Margaret posted this on her Facebook page today. I thought it was very touching considering that when I've seen her she's usually cutting it up and poking fun at her parents.

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RIP My Love, My Ralph

From Margaret Cho

Today at 11:03am

Do you remember when we met? I had come to the west valley animal shelter, and I saw you before you saw me. You were by yourself in a little cage at the end of the long corridor. When you saw me, you tried to bite your way through the wires. I stopped and took a moment to fall in love with you. Oh, you were tiny. A comma made of black fur, punctuating my love with licks and nips. Our affair was destined to be a run on sentence, on and on and on and on and on and on. But then, it was just the beginning of the story and you could sit comfortably and very dignified in the palm of my hand while you emanated gratitude and warmth and puppy love. There was a large wound on the top of your head that was caked in dirt and dried blood, and you had a slight wobble in your walk because the people at the shelter said you had been kicked very hard. They put you on a table and someone tried to feed you a French fry, but you refused it, because that would have meant you would have had to stop staring at me. you never wanted to stop staring at me. You were a master at seduction, even then, at just a few weeks old.

 

 

We went home together and you were scared. I had to bathe you in the sink and you hated it! You were even smaller without fur. The dried blood and fleas were gone, and then it was just you, wet and perfect and tiny and soon asleep between my giant platform shoes. It was the 90s after all.

 

 

I named you after Ralph Fiennes. “The English Patient” had just come out. You were badly hurt but I was determined to be your Juliette Binoche and nurse you back to health, my head on your chest, as you told me all the great stories of the war and your love. The vets didn’t believe you’d get better, but I held you day and night and cried softly into your fur and fed you nutrical from my fingers and you grew and suddenly, seemingly overnight, you were my big dog. My big boy. My Ralph.

 

 

You would sleep on the bed with me, in my single days, and you would put your head on the pillow, the rest of your dog body under the covers, just like a man. Before I was married, you were my dog husband. When we moved to the big house, you were horrified, and you barked at the movers like you were defending your homeland, but you grew to love the new house, and then your new dad, and begrudgingly, your new dog siblings.

 

 

I am not sure what I am going to do without you. My love. My Ralph. I don’t know yet. I am happy you are no longer in pain. All the money in the world couldn’t cure the passage of time. Where are you floating now? Among all the famous people in heaven? I bet it’s big scene up there. They should let you into the VIP lounge. Just tell them who your mother is.

 

 

I grieve for you so, my love. My big dog. Who was so afraid of the wind. When I petted you, I could hear the deep satisfaction that welled up inside you. Your great dog sighs were profound. You would shake the floors. When you were very sick, I would try to ease the pain by lying next to you in your bed, my whole body encircling yours, thinking if only I could absorb the pain, take the disease into myself and take it out of you. We can only do so much, we can only do so much on earth, my love.

 

 

I am convinced I will meet you again someday, when this is all over. When there are no more jobs or days or nights or appointments or things or shows or age or sun or moon or trips or life or anything. It will be just us, and there will be a field and you will run to me, with no pain in your hips. You will run to me and knock me down.M

[+ purplekow]

My wife and I had 7 dogs, before she died she asked me to take care of them. I have tried desparately to do so even as six of them have left here to go to wherever there is for dogs beyond this. It never gets easier to say good bye and I empathize with Ms. Cho's grief and admire her words of love and devotion. Time does make the memories I have of the herd more sweet than bittersweet and as a result I have adopted some other dogs to help me live my life with greater concern for others and a bit less for myself. That is one of many great gift our pets give us. For those of you who can afford to adopt a companion animal, shelters are overcrowded with pets whose humans could not afford to keep them or who choose not to find a way to do it. Adopt a shelter animal please.

[+ azdr0710]

for a few times, I volunteered to walk dogs at the local public animal shelter....every single one of them was fun-loving, happy to get out, eager to please....hard to stay with that volunteering because it's, ultimately, pretty depressing....

 

after putting my fantastic go-for-it dog to sleep in 2004, people asked me when I'm going to get a new dog.....still haven't gotten one as I don't want to go thru the ordeal again of a pet getting close to death and having to say goodbye.....

[KMEM]

azd-

 

I agree with you completely. I would love to have a "new" puppy, most likely a pound reject, but I hate to break in myself, so to speak. I have every excuse in the world. I am out of town too often, I don't have a ready friend to "keep" her while I am gone, I hate to lose another one, etc. One day...........

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[+ purplekow]

Suck it up fellows and do yourself a favor and let some love into your life. Ultimately you will be glad you did for a long time. Imagine if you stopped chasing men after your first broken heart...you would have missed the entired roller coaster of life and love.

[rvwnsd]

After reading Margaret Cho's blog post and finishing hugging my 17 year old cat Willy, I reflected on his late sister, Hillary, and how I debated whether I would get another cat. No cat would ever be like Hillary and I thought Willy would like to have the run of the house. Two years after Hillary's passing I adopted Heidi. My vet found her and her kittens in an auto parts yard. I intended to adopt one of her kittens and I brought her home instead. After 2 years she is still learning how to be a pet, but she has filled out into a beautiful cat. She's also turned into a wonderful companion for Willy. He rules the roost and chases her around. I'm convinced that he remains fit and kitten-like thanks to Heidi.

 

My advice is to get another pet.