And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)
As the day approached for my dear grand dog Summer’s departure to live with her boy, now a married man as my friend, Vicki, reminded me, I grew more and more melancholy about her leaving. I bought her toys, a bag of food, a new bed, treats, but still, it hurt to know that she would be across the state and no longer under my influence. Yes, I think I felt worse about her leaving than youngest son. He chose to go, he is happily married, but Summer was being uprooted from the only home she has known. The fact that she misses him so much when he leaves, she carried around one of his socks for two weeks when he moved out at Thanksgiving, forced me to let her go, but I knew that the switch from being a country dog with five acres to roam and a sister to keep her company to being a city dog living in an apartment would not be easy. My distraught state of mind is all I have to explain why when oldest son asked for a puppy for his birthday; I immediately went out and got him one. Yes, the same week that one grand dog left the nest and another one entered. He knew he needed a small dog that could easily adapt to apartment life and at first we were looking for a Scottish Terrier. He wanted a black male, but we could not find one anywhere, only white females. I was relieved because everything I read about Scotties said that they were difficult to train. When, someone sent him a Facebook post of a Welsh Corgi that said, “Here’s something to make you smile,” it was easy for me to support his change of direction. And when we found a litter of Cardigan Welsh Corgi puppies only a few miles from our house and the photo of the male caused my son to stammer like he had he’d been invited to go to a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit photo shoot, I knew we’d found our puppy. Sai, named for a Buick manufactured in China (yes, our family names all our animals after Buicks, weird, I know), is the first small dog we have ever had. Though husband calls him, “half a dog”, he is sturdy, full of himself and incredibly smart. He has been easy to house train, loving and social and though Lucy the Doberman is cautious, even the Queen is falling under his spell. He drags a moose stuffed animal bigger than he is around the house. He cuddles up under your neck and true to his name, sighs, when you pick him up. He sleeps on his back in his crate and “herds” all his toys into a pile and then, lies on top of them. He chases his little black and grey striped tail (Cardigan Welsh Corgis, unlike the Pembroke Welsh Corgis have tails) that looks like a raccoon’s tail, and his deep blue eyes will melt any reservation you might have about loving him. Best of all, Sai makes oldest son smile as he waits for more training and a new job, and he eases that ache in my heart that Summer left behind.
PS Summer is doing fine. It took some time for her to adjust, but she loves being with her boy and his wife and that’s all that matters.
Sweet.
I confess a little tear came to my eye as I read this. Giving up a loved one – even one with fur and four legs – is a hard thing to do. I'm glad Summer's adjusting well and that Sai will fill the void for a while. When Sai goes, consider something a little more permanent to fill the Sai hole. It sounds like you need two dogs.