Rufus

It's time to say goodbye to another friend.  My mother-in-law's dog Rufus (whose brother Rowlf I wrote about here) has died, probably at the age of seventeen or eighteen, which is a very great age for a basset hound in particular, & for dogs in general.

He was a very lucky dog.  He was found in northern California wandering in a field & taken to what we call "the pound."  Around the time of his discovery, my wife's mother had had a heart attack, & my wife had gone to see her, to help with her recovery.  My wife was missing her own dog, & wanted a dog to walk, & her mother suggested they visit the city pound, & there, my wife's mother found Rufus.

She learned his history.  She saw, according to a note on his cage, that he might be (would be?) put down (ie, killed) the very next day.  My wife's mother had a thing for bassets, & that affected her.  They moved on, they saw other dogs, but something about Rufus stayed with her.

& someone at the city pound noticed.  They took her back to Rufus, they let her go outside with him, they encouraged her to spend time with him.  I didn't know or meet Rufus when he was so young, but I bet he was a charmer.  I couldn't resist him in old age; how could my wife's mother resist him in his youth?

Rufus was adopted.  He found his "forever home."  What a good home it was!  He was the king.  Even when, later, he found out he had a brother from another mother named Rowlf, he was magnanimous in his power.  He established his walking schedule, he enjoyed his meals, he reveled in  his time with my wife's mother.

As for me, I only got to know Rufus late in his life.  When I meet dogs, I spend as much time with them as I do the humans around them.  (The dogs are usually the more interesting.)  I visited with him the past couple of years & enjoyed walking him - we both had somewhat easygoing, some would say slow, styles.  Earlier this years, in a visit to a nearby park, we took the time to enjoy the sun.  Here's Rufus:

He didn't know he had less than a year left on the planet (me either!).  He didn't know his constant companion would no longer be with him in a few weeks.  He was living in the moment, as all animals except humans do, enjoying a beautiful day, knowing his mother & sibling were near, happy to make a friend or be reacquainted with one, accepting of the vagaries of life.

I can still see his face before me, feel his basset jowls as I petted his face, see his big, sad eyes as I told him how much I liked him, hoping he might too like me.

The world is less than because he is not here, but it is more than because he existed.

Good bye, Rufus.  You were a good thing.  I am so so happy I knew you.