Pet Cemetery : PART 1

Three. Three dear friends gone. Three, long-time, well-traveled friends of childhood. Good-bye, but not really. I can’t exactly hear you anymore. You’re gone. For the most part, except when you’re not gone, which is mostly in my dreams. There’s a part of me too where you’ve gone. I can’t see her anymore but she whispers. Good and bad memories. They aren’t fading like the rest. Phones try to remind us of our memories now, but they don’t capture the moments that stay in focus– they’re secondary really. The moments that stay with us are always peculiar. Like we never really get a choice of what goes and what stays as we age. Mostly no regret. Love. Companionship. Fun. Times when pet-friends were not given enough attention or held as often as you would have liked. Months ago, when a familiar face left our house for the last time, I didn’t say good-bye. Months ago, Sebastian left his home for the last time. I wish I would’ve said something. But he’s gone now and he deserved to rest. He had been commissioned well into his retirement, you see, to watch over my beloved grandmama, Bunny FooFoo, during her last months on Earth with us. He was a retired French (we can’t prove it, but he was French) show-made-for-lap dog. Belonging, first, to my auntia and then sneakily pawned by Miss Bunny Foo Foo.

Auntia was a busy working woman in her thirties when Miss Bunny showed her an ad she had seen for the most adorable shitzhou maltese mix. Darling and always chic, when Miss Bunny showed an ad it was for the purpose of purchase. Beguiled by an adorable fluffy white puppy, my auntie was coaxed into going, “just to see” the dog. Instantly in love, Sebastian came home with them, then and there.

What my Auntia didn’t know, was that when she asked my darling grandmama to dog-sit while she was on the first work trip that would take her away from the new babe, Foofoo would never let him go. That’s the story of how my aunt’s dog Sebastian became my grandmother’s dog.

Over the years, my Foofoo would take him with her everywhere. On trips around the country, even to restaurants! He was well-trained. He knew how to sit quietly next to the table and not to beg. He had sweaters and lil booties for the winter time in Texas, and a regularly scheduled grooming visit with his favorite gay dog-groomer/ pet stylist for the stars (of Northern Texas), Russel.

As the years went on, time took away its blessings of youth. Travel became less frequent, scraps were given which inevitably led to begging at the table, and oh how we cried and were sorrowful when Russel passed away. In 2022, my grandmother had a surgery that took her outer life away, though she physically stayed with us through May of 2023. Sebastian didn’t know what to do with himself. My grandmother couldn’t hold him or be a companion to him like she had been all his life. Sadly, the rest of us were not up to the task of taking as diligent care of him as my grandmother had. Geriatric as he was, he was not fond of when we tried to clip his toenails or get stickers out of his fur, much less give him sink baths and take him with us when our day took us away from the house. He would lay at the foot of my grandmother’s bed and watch Downton Abbey with her until her bed transformed into one made for a hospital, for health reasons. Nowhere to sit next to FooFoo, Sebastian looked like such a lost pup. Two months after my grandmother died, we put Sebastian to sleep, due to health concerns at his age of 15.

We had a house that was full of the life only a dog can bring; as in barking, peeing, begging, stinky breath and face-licking. Now the house is quiet (sans the frequent meowing which comes from our garage when the cats want to come inside). The essence of FooFoo that lived inside of her and her dog have passed on from us. I wonder what happened in the universe when the spirit from that little pup’s body rose to meet the one recently departed from my grandmama. I hope, somewhere, that he jumped up into her arms and licked her face. I hope my grandmother said to him, “Are you ready to go see Russel for your grooming appointment?” That they both smiled a sassy smile and sashayed away into the cosmos.

Disclaimer!

*This is a story based on my own personal experiences. Any biased information is rooted in my own personal preferences, opinions, and experiences. I do not owe my opinions, personal preferences, or experiences to anyone. If something does not resonate please feel free to disregard it. I will always recommend that you only ever do what you feel is best. Only through everyone actively taking advantage of their own free will, will we ever hope to see a world in which others no longer succeed in trying to control humanity. Power is different from force and there is so much power in humanity. Do what is best for you and the people you love. Move with love and with compassion, and that is graceful. That is different from those who move to control. Control is rigid and cold and has no grace.*

This article was written by Enhance team member Sidney Floyd-Armstrong. Be sure to subscribe and keep an eye on the blog for more fun content from our team!