Published by Robert W. Huntley, CFP®, CHFC®
I like this joke of the man praying:
“Lord, help me be half the man my dog thinks I am. Amen.”
This is Duffy Romeo Huntley. My wife rescued him in 2007 and he quickly filled a void left by our prior dog “Bensen”. We had to say goodbye to Duffy on January 23, 2018. We’ll miss him.
What is it about dogs that make us so happy? I’ve seen meme’s trying to capture it in clever ways. I like this one:
Dogs are flat out wonderful. They love you unconditionally. They’re always, always, always excited to see you. They’ll die protecting you. They are blissfully unconcerned with the cares of this world. And best of all, they’re always ready for anything, anytime.
Sleep! Sure. Play? Of course. Hunt? Awesome! Watch football? Cool! You name it, they’re always up for it. Just so long as they can be with you.
I remember the somewhat famous clip of Jimmy Stewart reading a poem he wrote about his dog Beau on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. At first, the audience is chuckling, thinking it’ll be something humorous. But as he reads you realize this is a person missing their buddy and you end up trying to keep it together by the end of the poem.
Here’s a link to the clip if you’ve never seen it. Highly recommended. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwGnCIdHQH0
Linda and I have parted ways with three furry friends in 35 years of marriage. Each one had their own unique personality and mannerisms. But each of them was like members of the family. Our kids have their own personal favorite, depending on their age when our friends came into and out of our lives.
This week we said goodbye to Duffy. His body just wore out and he was in too much pain. Duffy was a rescue and Linda initially wanted to name him Romeo because of those big brown eyes. But it quickly became apparent to the family that Duffy was a better fit.
Duffy most likely had some Corgi in him. Perhaps some Terrier too. He looked to me more like a German Shepard with really short legs. He fit right into our family of vertically challenged humans. He clearly thought he was a human too.
His only claim to fame is perhaps that he looked so much like Jennifer Aniston’s dog “Norman”. In fact, we never saw another dog that looked like Duffy other than photos of Jennifer’s Norman.
Everyone would stop us and ask, “what sort of dog is he”? We’d do our best at answering, but he was a rescue, so we never really knew for sure.
I’ll miss old Duffy. He loved to talk. My family jokes that I “broke” him during an extended period when he and I spent a lot of time together without other family members around.
I’ll admit, we did our share of howling and running around the house. They claim he talked a lot more after that. I don’t know. Maybe they’re right.
I think dogs give us a glimpse of how things were originally designed to be with people. Authentic relationships with no agendas. Genuine joy at seeing other people. A desire to be near the people who mean something to you. Constant curiosity and a desire to play hard and rest completely.
Anyway, I’m sure grateful to God for giving us dogs. They make me smile and give me a glimpse of what is to come when I relocate from this world.
Most of us have stories about a special dog in our life. I invite you to share a photo and your favorite story about your furry friend with us on our Facebook page. I know others will enjoy reading your recollections.
Here’s a link: https://www.facebook.com/WiseCounselWealth/
I think I like that joke about the prayer so much because I really would like to be more like the person my dog thinks I am.
