My Friend

By Bruce Eekma

Over the years I had many friends, mostly human, and some have since past away. Even my wife was a very good friend when we first met, however after fifty years of marriage, it has worn a little thin. I believe that after all those years (50+) she became accustom to my face.

No my best friend was our Tia a Chow-Chow, black with a purple tong, her full name was Tia-Maria, but every time we called her this she would give us a confused look as to say are there two of me. She was actually my wife’s dog, who was told by a pet store employee, that Chow-Chows could be very aggressive and the best way to pacify this breed was to go and sit on them. Well that was a show all on its own because every time my wife would try to sit on Tia, who would quickly move out of the way, resulting in my wife falling on the floor.

Now our Chow-Chow was the friendliest dog our family ever owned and I believe if a thief came to our house, to steal something, Tia would help them. Tia was in love with the whole family, but I was her favorite, mainly because being a marathon runner I would take her on my daily ten kilometer run. All I had to do was grab her lease and then it was chaos for she would jump up and down and circle my legs and we would get all tied up. Then when I got everything untangled and my running shoes on she would sprint through the front entrance and drag me for five kilometers, after which we would turn around, then I would have to drag her back to the house again. When we arrived back home my wife would look at Tia, who was laying on the floor pretending to be totally exhausted, then would yell at me that I was destroying her dog. The more she yelled at me the more Tia would pant and I believe she enjoyed getting me in trouble.

Also every time I was on the phone talking to my friends, Tia thought that I was talking to her, and the more I talked the more she would bark and howl so I could not hear a thing anyone was saying. Finally I would have enough of this and would throw a treat on the patio, Tia would run outside, and then I quickly closed the door behind her so I could finish my conversation in peace.

Every day when I came home from work, it was always Tia, who would greet me at the door. She would gently take me by the hand or shirt, with her teeth, and take me to the kitchen. Of course that is where the leash was hanging and she was ready to go for a run. Sometimes a friend or other family member would come to our house and she would give them the same treatment I got, however they didn’t like it very much because they thought Tia was biting them.

I remember one day watching TV on the couch, with Gypsy a small white poodle we owned on my lap, and Tia laying on the floor beside me. My wife called for both our dogs to go to the bathroom, which they did, then after a few minutes they returned with both of them running towards me. The small poodle was the first one on my lap, with Tia right behind her, who would take a giant leap and totally missed my lap so came crashing to the floor. The whole family heard the crash and they all came running to see what I had done. Well you know it took me the whole weekend to explain to them that it was not me who tried to hurt her, no it was that Tia was way too big to be a lap dog.

Then Declan our great-grandson came into our lives, who when small, could do almost anything he wanted with Tia, he used her as a pillow or mattress he even put her in a box, you name it he did it. When Declan got a little older he would, sorry I have no pictures so you will have to use your imagination, stand behind Tia and he was just tall enough to look right at her rear-end, with her tail curled up, exposing her privates. All Declan could see was a black whole and he could not help it but stick his finger in it, after which Tia would take a giant leap and disappear under the coffee table. Of course she was too big to be under there, so would move the whole lot, with all of us attempting to stop her before the whole kit and caboodle was broken on the floor. Sometimes it would take us a half hour before we had Tia quiet down while making sure Declan was not behind her. However after a few days everything would have been forgotten and the little stinker would do it again. After a while Tia would learn to lie flat on the floor with her legs spread sideways, so Declan couldn’t reach anything, when he was in the room and after that day we could only take pictures of Tia lying flat on the floor.

When Tia got older, we had her for fourteen years, the first thing that went was her eyes resulting in her walked into furniture or walls. Next she lost her hearing which was a bigger problem because if she got out the backyard, she could walk into traffic, we could scream at her but she would just keep on going. At the end she was diagnosed being diabetic which would require us to inject her with insulin every day, something I didn’t look forward to plus all the other problems, after which we decided to put her down and that was the most rotten thing we ever had to do in our life.

So my friend good bye we enjoyed having you for all these years and when we meet again in the hereafter we will go for a run.

Love you Tia.