Micha was a pound puppy...

This is the second in a series of posts from our Board members about what inspires them to volunteer for Safe Place for Pets.

Micha was a pound puppy, a Golden Retriever mix who had a Master’s Degree in begging for tummy rubs. We were living in Palmer Lake, next door to my brother-in-law who had a yellow lab of about the same age as Micha. ‘Sunny’ was about as laid back as a dog could be, and Micha didn’t know the difference between the word ‘play’ and ‘life’.

As a result, the two of them didn’t interact much. Sunny thought that laying in a patch of sunlight on her doggy bed was the ultimate pleasure in life, while Micha thought that rolling in the snow was the best thing ever. I used to call Sunny “Eeyore”, because she had that same, slow-moving, “I’m coming…” attitude.

We had a late winter blizzard in March, so Micha and I went next door to visit Sunny and her family. After a few cups of coffee, Micha and I decided to head back home. Sunny needed a potty break and came outside with us. While Micha was dancing and burrowing into the snow, Sunny was freezing cold. She quickly took care of business and headed back inside. Micha intercepted her with a look that said, “Sunny, let’s play in the snow!!” Sunny stopped, and the look she gave Micha could only be interpreted as, “What the hell is wrong with you?” Frankly, I was wondering the same thing.

My mom passed away in May of that year, and about two weeks later we got the news that Micha had cancer. Not wanting to deal with another loved-one’s death, we arranged for Micha to get chemotherapy. But by early October, Micha was nearing the end. Every morning, we carried her outside in a large storage container so she could lay there and enjoy the sunshine and cool fall air as she was wont to do. Then, the strangest thing happened; Sunny would beg to go outside, and then come over to our house and lie down about 20 feet behind Micha. Sunny usually never stayed outside more than a few minutes, but she stayed there at her post all day until we carried Micha back inside in the late afternoon. Sunny would then get up and go back inside her house. This continued for three days, until it was finally time to take Micha for her final trip to the vet.

Clearly, Sunny was watching Micha’s back, knowing that Micha was becoming feeble. Now, Sunny was no fighter, having her own issues with arthritis and seizures. But Micha was her neighbor, and it was her job to protect her. No, there was no communication, no playing with each other, no outward signs of friendship. It seemed that Sunny knew that 11th commandment: “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. Even if you don’t like your neighbor, or socialize with your neighbor, or even talk to your neighbor, you still have to ‘love’ your neighbor. Not that romantic, fun kind of love, but the kind of love that makes us help people thousands of miles away that we may never meet.

I’ve often thought that dogs were sent to us by God to teach us how to live our lives. Micha taught us about unconditional love and living for simple pleasures, and Sunny taught us to love those we don’t even know that well. Yes, there are badly-behaved dogs in this world, but I think that’s mostly caused by people that abuse them. If the world was run by dogs, we wouldn’t need to post the ten commandments on courthouses; dogs already have those rules written in their hearts.

Sunny passed on a few years ago. I always wondered how her passage to the Rainbow Bridge went. I like to think that Micha was the first one to greet her, tail wagging madly, dancing and smiling, while Sunny slowly ambled over to the first patch of sunlit grass she could find. Though they all live in community with each other, Micha’s ‘heaven’ probably has lots of snow and sticks to chase, while Sunny’s has soft beds and warm sun. Regardless, they both deserve their final reward, more than any person I’ve ever met. If I can learn how to behave half as well as them, then with the grace of God I just might be granted the same fate. Although, I kinda like Sunny’s version of heaven better.