EULOGY TO NORA THE DOG

SUBMITTED BY AN SBINSIDER READER| March 16th, 2024

EDITOR’S NOTE: Many of our neighbors in SaddleBrooke have beloved pets as part of their home. Every morning and many afternoons, we see folks walking their pet dog to maintain and enhance the health of both the owner and the canine. Humans normally outlive their pets and so it is inevitable that we are at some point going to lose our faithful friends and it is painful as they are family members. A reader recently experienced such a loss and as a means of mitigating his grief, submitted the following:

EULOGY TO THE DOG

by George G. Vest- From: Treasury of the Familiar

Gentlemen of the jury, the best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter whom he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us – those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name – may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world – the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous – is his dog.

Gentlemen of the jury, a man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that are encountered in the roughness of the world.  He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.  If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death.

Nora RIP

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