Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: POUND (07/15/21)
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TITLE: Crooked Grace | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kenneth Bridge
07/18/21 -
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Maybe it was because of that crooked back that she had developed such a winsome, eager to please attitude, with her thin tail wagging furiously on one side and her eyes pleading to go home with us. She was, I believe, oblivious to her peril. This was not a desperate attempt to escape her doom, but an earnest plea to love and be loved. Whatever the case, when I saw her there I was no longer aware of any other dog in the place. I wanted Gracie, I wanted to show her love and accept her weird, wiggling, writhing, one-sided tail wagging expression of pure love.
So Gracie entered our lives the same month as my brother, Jimmy. And filled some of the void in the amount of attention my family could give me now that there was a new baby in the house. All babies need attention, but Jimmy more than most. I felt my mother’s anger when relatives and neighbors asked if we were going to place Jimmy somewhere where he could get all the “care he would need.” The care he needed was from the family where God had placed him. Yes it could get wearying at times. But he would never be a burden, just someone to love and be loved in return.
Jimmy didn’t start walking until after he was three. He would fall down a lot, and pull himself back up by any table or chair or bookshelf he could reach. And always nearby, close enough to help, not so close as to interfere, Gracie would watch over him. She seems to have made it her top priority. If Jimmy toppled in the middle of a room, alongside would appear Gracie, and Jimmy would grab a couple handfuls of fur and pull himself upright.
Kids can be cruel. Not just the unintentional but unfiltered curiosity of children trying to fit some anomaly into their growing experience of the world, but the kind of evil heart that wants to hurt others. Anybody who doesn’t believe in Original Sin has never observed children at play. I know about turning the other cheek, but Jimmy didn’t know how and I wasn’t about to turn it for him. I’ve bloodied a number of noses in my childhood, and I don’t feel any remorse.
Jimmy would grow older, but he would never grow up. His child like wonder would always bring a breath of fresh air. His laughter was a crackling fireplace on a cold winter day, his smile was the sunlight breaking through the clouds. His obsessions and quirky talents were astonishing. For a while he tape recorded as many car horn sounds as he could, and could identify every car make and model from the sound of its horn.
We have been blessed by Jimmy. He loves unconditionally and we have learned to love just from being around him. We first learned that lesson from Gracie. But dogs don’t live as long as people do. She declined slowly at first, then rapidly. My parents were debating what to do. They thought it kinder to have her put down, but found the thought too agonizing so they temporized until it was too late. They heard Jimmy wailing and rushed into his room to find him holding Gracie’s lifeless body in his arms.
He was inconsolable for a few days until we buried her next to the oak tree in the back yard and Jimmy began to understand that Gracie was in heaven, running and playing. Today I’m stopping by the house to pick up Jimmy. We’re on our way to the County Dog Pound to look for a rescue dog. Jimmy will choose. We learned a lot from Gracie. But the best lesson of all is that when we try to save others, we will always find that we receive more than we can give.
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