Generating Stories

Hurricane Florence is bearing down on the Carolinas with a fury and worry! We are receiving a young marine and his family as refugees. We’re looking forward to their visit. His wife is the daughter and granddaughter of  longtime friends in Texas. It will be a treat to get to know them up close and personal. They have a toddler and one on the way, I think. Camp LeJeune (where he is stationed) is right on the nose of the hurricane path. The Romines made it to somewhere in GA last night and will be with us later today.

Old Buddy (whose in the picture at the top) is getting weaker. He doesn’t seem to be in pain and still is very alert, but we can see his decline. He’s just a couple months away from being 13 years old. And, for a rescue dog, he’s had a good life with us. How we came to get Buddy is quite something. Barb had never particularly wanted a dog at all. But, she started mentioning every now and then that a large dog on our place in Texas might be a good thing.

A coffee house friend told me about rescuing a really great dog out of a ditch that ran through some property he was developing. He said he got the dog out of the ditch, gave him some water, then got in his truck and drove home (just a couple of blocks.) When he got out of his truck, here came that dog. Well, he had no place to put him, so he asked his neighbor could she keep him for a day or so to see if my friend could find the owner. He couldn’t find the owner. He told me about this and asked if I knew anyone who might want a nice young big dog. When I told Barb, I asked if she would like to go look at the dog and, to my surprise, she said yes.

We went to the neighbor’s house with my friend. The neighbors were very gracious people and we talked a few minutes before she said let me bring “Sandy” (her name for the dog) in. She went to the back door and opened it and here came Buddy. He walked past her husband, me, my friend, went right to where Barbara sat and put his head on her knee! —-I am not kidding. She said, “Are you my buddy?” and we had a dog. They have loved each other for 13 years. (He tolerates me rather well, too.)

We had to rename him because we had friends (both male and female) named Sandy who would not have thought there was any humor in us having given our dog their name. So, since he was obviously Barbara’s “buddy”, Buddy it was. We found out a little later that is is the 4th most common name for dogs. Harumph!

Life yields many stories. Sometimes things are not worth telling, some things are too personal and private to tell, and some hold all the love we can muster, and will just keep on regenerating sweet memories. The longer we live, the more we know how to discern which stories fit where and whether or not to tell some of them. I hope Buddy’s story is 1/10 as sweet to you as it is to Barb and me.

Thanks for reading