A Few Words About A Friend

Sitting in the motel in Newport, TN, waiting to go to the Bible Believers Cowboy Church to fellowship with the folks this morning. Bro. Sam has been in Oklahoma doing a memorial service for his mother. I’m hoping all went well with that yesterday and that Bro. Sam has an uneventful trip back home. 

Hopefully, we’ll have a good bible class this morning, centered on the gospel of Christ as our hope and our glory. The Lord’s word is so full of good doctrines, good teachings to speak on. Pray with me that it is clear from my thoughts and words to theirs who hear.

Been thinking about how to write a eulogy (of sorts) concerning Buddy, our companion for more than 13 years—pictured at the top of this blog. Buddy passed away Feb.27th. He showed no signs of a former illness until the morning he died. He was a happy dog, living in a happy, peaceful place—except for that ol’ white cat next door. When that cat came out in our front yard and Buddy was behind the fence, he would stand upright and do considerable barking to tell that cat to go away. She deserved to die—he was sure! she paid no attention and we usually lost the argument when we tried to get him to shut up about that cat! 

But, beyond the cat, he was a very contented dog. A wonderful friend, as only dogs can be. In the words of an old friend about his dog: “Buddy was the one member of the family who loved us just the way we were.” He never tried to change us and, in fact, he would carefully deliberate our attempts to change him, then usually noted he might receive some good thing for changing and complied. He had enough “herd” blood in him to understand things as he saw them. He never pretended. You might remember my description of how we came to have buddy for our own, but, indulge me a little. I hope you enjoy reading the story again. Back at the start of this blog I wrote:

Old Buddy (whose in the picture at the top.) 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 was 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 friend and coffee house mate 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 and 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!

So, we miss having Buddy in the backyard. but, I doubt if another dog is in our future. I hope you have a great day.

Thanks for reading, the Elder