"Wolf And Camille"
We were on the road
and our beloved Wolf was in the hospital for “observation”.
We hated to leave him,
but we had show contracts to fill.
Wolf was our five-year-old toy poodle,
with a high intellect and a weird sense of humor.
We were on edge,
waiting for word of Wolf’s condition..
Days went by and nobody called from the veterinary hospital,
so we pulled off onto a mountain top scenic rest area,
and called them.
The guy didn’t know who we were or which dog was ours,
and didn’t care.
He shuffled through a lot of papers,
hemmed and hawed, went to lunch,
and then said this to us:
“Oh, that dog. That dog died three days ago.”
That dog was our child!
With all our technology,
we still can’t strangle idiots over the phone.
When we’d had enough mourning,
we went to a pet store to look for another Wolf.
We knew it was a lost cause,
but we were looking at a poodle puppy in a cage..
He was almost to the age where nobody would adopt him.
When the clerk let him out,
he ran to Misty, up her leg, and into her arms,
and wanted to stay there.
I know the feeling.
He was named Wolf, and taken home.
Wolf stands for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
but we never told him that.
A short time later Misty brought home
a blonde puppy with huge eyes
and fur sprouts like a porcupine.
“Her coat will get long and beautiful”, Misty said.
We named her Camille,
after the old Garbo movie.
Wolf and Camille were like big brother and kid sister
when they were young.
Wolf 2 was not like Wolf 1…a different personality.
He took his job very seriously,
and he considered these his duties:
To protect and care for Camille,
to be loyal to us,
and be a good person at all times.
They kept each other company,
and in later years they became like a little old married couple,
without the bickering.
She went blind in her old age,
and would follow the walls around a room.
When she was cornered behind an open door,
Wolf would come to the rescue and gently nudge her to safety.
He guided her around
and interpreted our words for her,
because she was also losing her hearing.
Here's a picture taken in their final years:
We shared our life with them well into their teens,
which is about 100 years old in people years,
and when they were gone, we cried.
Sometimes we still do,
but we’re thankful for our wonderful years together.
This is for Wolf and Camille.
Copyright © November 1, 2005 by Jack Blanchard. All rights reserved.
