Block 17

 She's my baby.

She is the one

who taught me

what unconditional love was.

My Block #17 is Joy . . .

the most wonderful,

black and white hound mix

I have ever known.

To this day,

55 years later,

I can still remember

EVERYTHING

about her

coming into my life.

Dad was a railroader.

he worked in the yards.

One afternoon,

when he came home from work,

he asked me

if I would go out to his car

and bring in his work jacket.

Mom and I had been in the kitchen,

so out the kitchen door

to the back porch I go.

Out the back porch I go,

down the steps,

to the sidewalk

that connected the steps

to the street.

I can still see our old Chevy sitting there.

I opened the car door,

reached in,

picked up the jacket

and underneath the jacket

was this little

black and white puppy.

Not a speck of brown on her,

except for her deep brown eyes.

I picked her up,

cradled her in my arms,

and raced back into the house

to show Mom what I found

under the jacket.

(My mind doesn't tell me if I remembered the jacket . . .

and being only 4 years old,

I am sure it stayed in the car.)

Mom told me,

later in life,

 that she decide to name her Joy

because she brought so much Joy into our home.

As I say today,

she was a love dumpling.

So well behaved . . .

the only training she would have gotten

is from us.

And she picked up everything we taught her.

I can still feel the softness of her ears.

Never have I felt ears

that felt like silk on a dog.

Her smell was so calming . . .

not a hound smell,

just a Joy smell.

When I was making her square,

I felt this calming feeling come over me.

She had that way with me.

For the first years of her life

she followed Lee everywhere.

Then something happened that scared him . .

so he made her stay home.

She wasn't happy

but she found out that I was fun to be around

and for the rest of her life,

she was my girl totally.

Dad had to put her down

while I was away at college.

I was 19 . . .

she had been an integral part of my life

for 14 years.

But her hearing was going . .

now,

I believe

that she might have also been suffering

from a sort of doggie dementia.

She didn't get lost on her

"rounds"

of the neighborhood.

But she would get off track.

(Dad with Joy . .sitting on "her rug" in the dining room of 23 West Ottawa.)

One of the most traumatic days of my life

was coming home from college,

going into the house,

calling for her

and she didn't come.

I knew,

down deep in my heart,

what had happened.

(Mom and Joy in the back yard of 23 West Ottawa Street.)

 

When Mom got home from work,

we both had a good cry.

To this day,

I can still see her,

front paws on the front window,

looking in to let us know

she was ready to come in.

I can still feel,

how she felt,

when I would wrap my arms around her

and nuzzled her neck.

And those ears . . .

like soft,

black silk.

I am a firm believer

that when I die,

I will walk through St. Peter's gates

and there,

coming in a pack from

the Rainbow Bridge on my right,

will be all of the "fur babies"

I have loved in my life.

Leading them will be Joy . . .

so happy to see me after all these years . .

and as I see them

I start crying

I have missed them all so much.

But Joy,

she is the one I have to hug first . . .

she taught me so much

 and deserves that honor.

Dear Lord,


I have actual tears streaming down my cheeks. I knew I missed Joy, but didn't realize how much until I made her blessing square. When I made it, I was upset . . there was no room let by me for her to be. That hurt . . . she should have been right there by my side. So, I put her by Grandma. Grandma was alive the first 6 years of Joys life, so Joy won't feel alone on my sampler.


Thank you SO MUCH for bringing her into my life. Thank you for her teaching me how to give love to someone else. Thank you for all the times I was allowed to feed and water her. Thank you for letting me touch and pet her so much that my fingers still remember her to this day.


You are all knowing. You had, from the day she came to live with us, a plan for my life. You knew I would be a lover of animals, and that was the day to start me on my path.


I know, You know, how much I live for my "babies." Without them, I would not be who I am today.

Amen.

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