A dog is a great companion.A dog doesn't nag or sulk or whinge without reason.A dog is faithful unless you abuse its trust in which case you don't deserve any loyalty or affection.A dog knows things humans don't.A dog can sense decency and just knows a cruel person instinctively .
Certain people are dog magnets.My uncle Joe was one such.I have photos of Joe taken in the nineteen thirties and forties when he had only better than rags to wear and there was invariably a contented dog or dogs frolicking around him.
A dog can sense the imminence of death in its master/mistress in my opinion.I saw this at first hand when my uncle Tommy was diagnosed with imminent death from cancer.His dog Judy used be all over him before he went to hospital.When he came home to die she refused to have anything to do with him.She just knew.
Anyhow Joe had always two dogs and sometimes three.Always collies.He was a farmer and some character.Also a bachelor,he suffered most of his adult life from maniac depression,bipolar they call it now.His bed was over a hundred years old and had springs and a net of metal mesh under the mattress that were so well worn that when he got into the bed his body gradually jack knifed downwards so that his arse nearly hit the floor while his head and feet stayed on the level.
The family home in which he lived was built from stone drawn from the quarry then at the Moat in Navan by my grand aunt Maggie with an ass and dray.There was no insulation full stop.
Even with blankets and the old LDF coat on board it was cold in winter.But Joe's feet were never cold.One of the collies,Captain being the last ,was always trained to lie on the blankets on the foot of the bed over his feet.His tootsies were always as warm as toast,even on the coldest night.
Many's the night I spent with Joe at bedtime talking about this and that.As a matter of record he told me to my face that "I was thick but dacent".Not a bad epilogue I suppose.
Anyhow he was wont to smoke a fag or two before retiring and then he would say goodnight and pull the sheet and blankets over his head,Within minutes he would be sound asleep.The face stayed under the blankets until he awoke.
A stranger if he saw the bed would never think that Joe was asleep in it ,as all that was visible were bedclothes with no sign of a head ,a hanging matress in the middle and a dog lying at the end of the bed.
If I wanted to know if Joe was in bed the dog lying at the foot of the bed was a dead giveaway.
Joe had no patience.When he said" good night" he meant it..Then immediately the blankets and sheets came over the head and off he went.No offence meant.
When he was near death in Mullingar General Hospital I was advised by the medics of that fact and told a great friend of his that time was short and a visit soon was advised.The particular man was so busy that he said he would get hard to make time ,but did so .On a tight schedule.One hour to travel there,one hour to converse and one hour to get home.
I visited Joe every evening and was there when the friend arrived."Well Joe any craic here"? "Not much Jack ,they won't let me smoke"."How's Dunderry doing in the football"."Didn't hear"."Goodnight Jack ,I'm going asleep now".Threw the blankets over the head and that was it.
57 minutes saved.Actually Joe rallied for a while .The immediate cause of his grave illness was shingles which the medics couldn't clear up and which were rapidly killing him.
I went to a Mr.Leavy in Athboy who had the cure.He couldn't go to see Joe bur prayed over a towel,gave it to me with instructions to rub it on Joe's body where the shingles lay and listed for me the prayers to say.I did this and to nearly everybody' s great surprise but not mine, very suddenly the shingles cleared up fully.But he did die shortly afterwards of other natural causes.
Yep man's beat friend and ,in Joe's case in any event,warmest.
No comments:
Post a Comment