My sister loved dogs.
There has been some occasional cats in her life but her deep, pure, unconditional, perfect love has always been toward dogs.
And dogs loved her at first sight. Even the most dangerous one, the annoying one, the shy one, the constantly barking one...she had a way with each of them and they loved her back.
I can say without a doubt that she had not loved anybody else in her life more than her dogs.....well, beside Fu., her very much loved boyfriend who died because of a stupid car accident many years ago. Changing her life. And ours too.
When we were still young we used to share the same room. Our dogs, two loving but endlessly drooling boxers, knew better than come close to my bed. They would sleep only on hers. One at her feet, the other one with the head on her pillow. I would say: “How can you handle all that smell and the drooling around you. It’s so nasty”.
She would say “Do they ever come to your bed? No. Do you know why? They feel you don’t like them”. Naturally, she was wrong. I loved them. I wasn’t very fond in sleeping with them, that’s all.
But that was her. She would have done anything for her dogs.
She went to live alone after I moved here in Usa. She called me one day and told me “When you come back here I will show you my new place and my new dog”.
This is how I met Merlino.
A fiery looking mixed breed dog with long gray and white hair and the most amazing eyes I ever seen in a dog: ice blue with tiny black pupils. They gave him the look of a mad dog. A crazy one. When he was looking at you it seemed like an alien was passing thru your brain. Unnerving.
They simply adored each other. Where she was, he was. The apartment she went to live was really tiny and Merlino had barely space enough to make a U turn in the living room and come back to the hallway repeating the same thing in any other room. But she kept that place tidy and spotless, fresh flowers and candles. I really believe she has been really happy there. Only her and Merlino.
Then, as one of numerous unfortunate events in her life, the happy times ended. The landlord needed the apartment back for his daughter. She had to move out.
She left with the death in her heart. Like she knew that her moving would have brought her only bad things. My home at that time, since I was here, was rented to a friend of us, Gaby. My mom and I agreed in letting my sister move in. Gaby needed a place in the country anyway because she had recently bought a horse soeverybody seemed fine with the new accommodation. Specially my mom because she had my sister close to her again. See, my mom’s home and mine occupy the whole second floor of the same building. One door divides the two places.
Few years after the move Merlino died.
I had been informed, as usual, by phone.
My mom told me that my sister was devastated. Merlino had been sick for a long time. It was time for him to go. But that didn’t make it easier for her to let him go.
At that time she was already involved in volunteering with the city kennel: she would go there each day bringing food, cleaning the cages, walking the dogs, finding new homes for them. She became friend with all the other volunteers, the veterinarian, the members of the LIV (League Anti Vivisection). Some were my friends too.
Two of them thought a new puppy would have consoled my sister for the loss of Merlino, even though she had swore of never, ever again in her life having another dog. But when she saw that new puppy she couldn’t resist.
And this is how Oscar came in her life.
Same breed of Merlino, Oscar was shier and skinnier though. He was a loving dog. Life for Oscar seemed easier than for Merlino: bigger house, longer walks in the woods, lots of other dogs to play with. She would leave him alone only to go to work.
Then everything started to go bad and wrong again in her life.
Life got hold of her and never let her breath again.
The unfortunate events started to multiply, constantly, mercilessly, one after another one. There was no time to take some breath: incidents, car accidents, loves gone wrong, surgeries injuries, physical rehabilitations, stress caused by a feud with my brother, money problems, depression, addictions.
Whatever had kept her together until then started to loose the grip of her. She wouldn’t show it to anybody, not even her closest friends. Less than less to her family. To me.
But she was going offshore. Like a boat with no more wind in her sail. You can see these beautiful vessels floating elegant on the water but underneath there is that deep, dangerous, dark current that is dragging them ultimately to crash against the rocks.
She was floating away and we didn’t see it.
They continued to see her and Oscar walking side by side along the beach and the boulevards, she constantly smoking and listening to her walkman. Oscar walking closely at her side. Then the long walks started to turn shorter and shorter. Oscar began to be left alone or baby sat by my mother. Or he and my sister wouldn’t leave the house for one, two days, three days in row. Only a quick walk for letting Oscar doing his things.
She continued to work though. Actually, she finally took the step she was dreaming about: she left our family business and opened, yes...... a pet shop.
Specialized, you guessed it right, in dog products. A trendy, small but well furnished shop that became in few months the attraction of all the animal lovers of the neighborhood.
She called me the day of the inauguration.
I could hear the music, the voices of friends, the laughter, the excitement in her voice. She was happy again. It seemed. Focus, proud of her accomplished dream, determined to make it work. She was finally soaring high .....
But it didn’t last long though.
This is a different story that it would take still time to be told tough.
So why am I telling you all of this?
Because one hour ago my mom called and told me that the City kennel decided to dedicate to her memory its brand new section.
Yes, the new kennel facility has been entitled to her name. My little sister has a perennial reminder of her existence on Earth.
I was speechless. This summer first thing I will do is going to see it.
I cried at the phone when my mom told me this amazing new.
She was trying hard not to cry. So I stopped my tears for not making her too sad and we carried on the conversation making silly jokes about Oscar, Merlino and her.
I am so proud of my sister.
I am so mad with her destiny.
Why this exceptional thing didn’t happen when she was still alive?
Why she had never been able to savor the sweetness of life but only the sour taste of failure?
I just wanted to share this (for me) exceptional news with you.
Because I can’t pick up the phone and call her and tell her:
“Congratulations, little sister. I love you so much”.
Probably you have too loved ones who amazed you with their accomplishment. I hope you had the opportunity to call them and tell them how proud you are of them.
