Soem of you may have seen an email going around--I cannot find a link but will try to paste into a separate message. There were some really moving pictures and captions about dogs that a friend sent me recently. I cannot pick a favorite but I will warn you that some will make you misty-eyed! Dogs are just such incredible animals, they really, really are! I've seen quite a few homeless people with a dog and I can hardly imagine what a comfort it would be to have a true and totally loving and nonjudgmental friend when you had fallen on hard times. Two of the pix depict this and the love and bond comes through clearly.
I guess many would say it is foolish or selfish to keep a dog when you can barely keep yourself alive but I find it awfully heaertless to deprive a person with so little the precious bond with a pet. I have told my Belle that I'd live in my pickup with her before I would give her up. It is paid for so even if I had little else, we would have that much of a home! I don't expect to fall into such dire straits but these days none of us really know what can happen. Life and all we know seems to be on shaky ground these days.
To shift gears, I was shocked a few days back to learn of the death in a vehicle accident of Larry Dever, who had been the sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona for many years and was running for a fifth term. He was not on law enforcement business but heading off for a hunting trip wtih one of his sons when the accident happened. Not having been there or talked to the investigators I have no real idea of how it happened but it is tragic anyway. He was a good man and principled, something that is pretty rare these days. He was also my son's top boss since David works in the correctional side of the Cochise County Sheriff's Department. Mr Dever was his boss for much of his career there. My late husband and I also knew and respected him. Since Jim had been in law enforcement he was critical of those who he felt did not do a good, whole-hearted, and integrity based job. That was not a problem with Mr. Dever. All I can say is RIP to a person I regarded as a friend, if not a close one, and that I admired very much. It is a real loss to the county, the state and the nation for his was a sane, calm voice in the border issue disputes. I found this obit on line with a poem by the renowned cowboy poet Badger Clark. It seemed very fitting.
Larry Dever
1952-2012
There is some that like the city -
Grass that's curried smooth and green,
Theaytres and stranglin' collars,
Wagons run by gasoline -
But for me it's hawse and saddle
Every day without a change,
And a desert sun a-blazin'
On a hundred miles of range.
Grass that's curried smooth and green,
Theaytres and stranglin' collars,
Wagons run by gasoline -
But for me it's hawse and saddle
Every day without a change,
And a desert sun a-blazin'
On a hundred miles of range.
Just a-ridin', a-ridin' -
Desert Ripplin' in the sun,
Mountains blue along the skyline -
I don't envy anyone
When I'm ridin'.
Desert Ripplin' in the sun,
Mountains blue along the skyline -
I don't envy anyone
When I'm ridin'.
When my feet is in the stirrups
And my hawse is on the bust,
With his hoofs a-flashin' lightnin'
From a cloud of golden dust,
And the bawlin' of the cattle
Is a-comin' down the wind
Then a finer life than ridin'
Would be mighty hard to find.
And my hawse is on the bust,
With his hoofs a-flashin' lightnin'
From a cloud of golden dust,
And the bawlin' of the cattle
Is a-comin' down the wind
Then a finer life than ridin'
Would be mighty hard to find.
Just a-ridin', a-ridin'
Splittin' long cracks through the air,
Stirrin' up a baby cyclone,
Rippin' up the prickly pear
As I'm ridin'.
Splittin' long cracks through the air,
Stirrin' up a baby cyclone,
Rippin' up the prickly pear
As I'm ridin'.
I don't need no art exhibits
When the sunset does her best,
Paintin' everlastin' glory
On the mountains to the west
And your opery looks foolist
When the night-bird starts his tune
And the desert's silver mounted
By the touches of the moon.
When the sunset does her best,
Paintin' everlastin' glory
On the mountains to the west
And your opery looks foolist
When the night-bird starts his tune
And the desert's silver mounted
By the touches of the moon.
Just a-ridin', a-ridin',
Who kin envy kings and czars
When the coyotes down the valley
Are a-singin' to the stars,
If he's ridin'?
Who kin envy kings and czars
When the coyotes down the valley
Are a-singin' to the stars,
If he's ridin'?
When my earthly trail is ended
And my final bacon curled
And the last great roundup's finished
At the Home Ranch of the world
I don't want no harps nor haloes,
Robes nor other dressed up things -
Let me ride the starry ranges
On a pinto hawse with wings!
And my final bacon curled
And the last great roundup's finished
At the Home Ranch of the world
I don't want no harps nor haloes,
Robes nor other dressed up things -
Let me ride the starry ranges
On a pinto hawse with wings!
Just a-ridin', a-ridin'-
Nothin' I'd like half so well
As a-rounin' up the sinners
That have wandered out of Hell,
And a-ridin'.
Nothin' I'd like half so well
As a-rounin' up the sinners
That have wandered out of Hell,
And a-ridin'.
Ridin' - Badger Clark
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