SacPaws.com

Allie, who was known at the dog park for fast and endless running, has made her final dash.

Running was her source of joy.  She ran so much that we never had to trim her nails – they were worn down to near nubs.   The few times that she slipped off her leash at a river or stream she would run away as fast as possible with a fierce intensity.  There was something desperately important that she was trying to reach.   Some unknown one she needed to meet.

In our backyard she would check in with Baby, the tiny dog next door, then tear around the yard in wild dashes that we called her Psycho Circuits.  She’d run back to the fence to talk to Baby.  Maybe to check her timing, maybe to find out how many circles to make on the next circuit, then she’d be off again zooming around and around the yard, through her little pool, skittering across the patio, gripping the grass with her strong claws. 

Tuesday after work I came home to an empty yard.  Our six foot fence and locked gates could no longer contain her.  In a brief time while we were all away from home she went over the top and ran South.  We searched the entire neighborhood, talking to anyone and everyone on the street.  We checked the dog park and quickly made posters to put up.

There are very kind people in the world.  We received an anguished voice message from a man who took the time to move her body out of traffic and placed her on the grass.  By the time we got there her body had already been removed.  Someone had called Animal Control and they had taken her to a more peaceful place. The staff at Animal Control was very kind and gracious to us in our grief.

Stunned and sad as we are, it is a comfort to know she isn’t wandering alone and hurt or scared.  Before she came to our home, Allie had obviously been abused and she had some fears and memories that we were never able to soothe.  But now, as in the poem “High Flight” Allie has slipped her surly bonds of earth to never again be afraid.

High Flight

Oh!  I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence, Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air . . .

Up, up the long delirious burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

- John Gillespie Magee, Jr.