funfurall

Yet I cannot help thinking my last post is an impertinence from start to finish. Robin is in the process of losing her mother; here I am writing about my departed dog. I am, in point of fact, in the process of losing my father and probably in not too much longer my mother. And here I am writing about my departed dog.

But is the love we have for animals any less, though different? Is it even any different? I know I am on dangerous ground here. The line we draw between our species and all the others is sharp and inviolate; that is part of the deal, of being human. To blur it is to invite all sorts of unwelcome questions. And yet Garth was part of the family. What can I do about that?

There are oddly humorous moments amid the sorrow, and one of them occurred when we got Garth's ashes back from the pet crematorium, and in a moment of idle curiousity I went to the Web site of the pet funeral home that did the job,
http://www.regencyforest.com/. I don't know why it surprises me that everything you could do for a human funeral you could do for a pet, except maybe embalm the pet and have an open-coffin Irish wake, with wailing and drinking. And who knows? Maybe if you ask nicely, you could have that, too.