We oftentimes hear people talking about a dog as their best friend. I could only respond to them half-heartedly as I did not yet have a first-hand experience regarding the matter. But now that I had experienced it, then I could truly say that dogs are indeed, the most faithful friends one could ever encounter. This is the story of my dog- Piper.
Piper had been brought home by my husband when she was just several days old. Even then, she was so impish and unruly. She would run around the yard non-stop; toppled everything blocking her path, and bit strange looking things into Kingdom come.
I was irritated at first because of how she was turning the house upside down that I had to tie her up. She refused to be tied up of course and did all she could to get out of her imprisonment. I had no option but to set her free. By then I was growing to like her cute antics. I named her Piper. Yes, after the lovely lady Piper of Charmed!
When I arrived home from work, she would rub her body against my feet and wagged her flurry tail, wanting to be cuddled. There were times that my husband and son were out, so I had to bathe her and feed her myself.
After two weeks however, she got sick. She vomited all what she had eaten and had tenesmus (blood in stool and difficulty in defecation). I thought she would die then, and I prayed silently as I patiently fed her milk and medicine from a dropper. She was just lying down there so weak and helpless that I prepared myself to lose her.
After a week though, my prayers were answered, she was up and about and was again in the front door to greet me whenever I came home.
She did not get sick again, not until she was 3 months old. She had a big infected wound, from a barbed wire fence in the back yard. I had again to nurse her to health until her wounds got healed.
Soon, when husband and son were stationed in another city, I was left alone, as I didn’t want to leave my job. Piper provided me with the company and security. She may have sensed that I needed to be safe and had kept vigil over the house when I was not around and more so when I was.
There was a time I had been brought to the hospital for treatment and she stayed faithfully in the front door guarding the house. Nobody remembered to give her food or to check on her. (I still, am teary-eyed whenever I remember) I was unconscious then so I could not instruct them to check on her, and because everyone was preoccupied, no one remembered.
When I went home eventually, there she was sitting guard at the door, faithful as ever!
When I moved to an apartment nearer my place of work after a year, to avoid stress. I was forced to instruct my son to bring her, as dogs were not permitted in my apartment.
She had adapted nicely to my son’s family and again stood guard over my grandkids!
When she died, my grandkids cried as I did.
If at first I found it strange that people would cry for a dog, the death of Piper had made me understand them completely.
And I’m not ashamed to admit that I have cried for my best-friend; my dog – PIPER!
N.B.
The picture here is not of Piper but of my son’s dog – a Rottweiler, which they named Piper too, in memory of my best friend. They have to tie her up as she would bite strangers.
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