The Story of Mr. Reecie and his sudden death, and his eternal love.
I am working outside with my beloved Reecie, a rescue dog who had been with us for 15 years. My wife had fallen and broken her leg three weeks before, and I heard her call for help from the back door. I turned to go toward her voice when I hear a terrifying cry of pain from my Mr. Reecie. His voice vibrated with suffering.
I find it interesting how in the hearing of certain sounds the heart automatically prepares us for grief.
Mr. Reecie
Reecie had never in all our years gone near the fire pit that is ringed with stones and a hill of dirt. But there he is, writhing in pain in the embers. How he got in there I do not know. My beloved Reecie, who would sleep with us, cuddle, play, nap, eat, and drink of sacred waters, was burning.
Dashing to the fire pit, I leap into the red-hot burning embers to pull him out. I am barefoot – shocked throughout. I scream for my wife as I run to our swimming pool and jump into the cooling waters. I pray he will be okay. He was not OK, and I am being baptized into a particular suffering this day, an initiation, then, and when he died, two days later. I have wept for as many years or more.
For some unexplained reason, my clothing and feet are not harmed. But I say that the memory of this tragic event has been burned into my mind forever, both the love and the hurt.
My wife and I are blessed to have been with him all those years. Our initiation into death was terrible: initiation and blessing, blessing and initiation. We could never have one without the other. It is the nature of life. Even so, Reecie taught me about forgiveness. For him to do so when it was I who failed him, I think is a story of love and courage.
Recriminating Dispersions
There are days since his death I am
immersed in recriminating dispersions –
finding nothing takes away the pain,
for I cannot find even a single diversion.
Please do not think poorly of me,
for I have taken care of that myself.
It is only when I remember him –
nuzzling my chest and loving me,
that I can place my scathing condemnations
into that same fire, and then place their ashes
next to his, there upon the shelf.
Mr. Reecie in his favorite “I have a big heart” sweater.
