Had an interesting chat with an elderly woman I met on my riverside walk with the dogs just now.
Goofy barked at her to start with, as she walked towards us out of the gloom. I apologized, and she turned around to walk up the river with us, explaining that my dog could probably smell her dog on her. Privately I thought it was more likely just my personality disordered pet exhibiting her typical pathological anxiety, but I didn’t say anything. It turns out her dog was at home, currently dying of a prolonged illness. I said how awful, and that we’d lost a dog earlier in the year. She mentioned she was planning on getting her dog cremated, and I said we’d done the same although hadn’t got around to scattering the ashes so far. She said not to be in too much of a hurry, as she was planning on being cremated herself and in fact had put it in her will that she wanted all her doggies ashes to go in the same urn with her, whilst admitting that space may be at a premium with some of these modern smaller receptacles. She was very pleased in fact that I didn’t think it was odd that she was getting her dog cremated. She had been a little concerned that people might. She then said she’d also instructed in her will that any living dogs she had at the time of her death were to be put down and cremated too. I must say I thought this was a bit chilling but luckily she didn’t ask me my opinion on that one. She urged me to think about putting similar requests into my own will. I’m not sure how old she thought I was but I suppose it was getting quite dark by then. I must say I do know people who have not got another pet as they got older for fear that the pet would be left behind if they died first, but that wouldn’t put me off. I figure I’d give a doggie a good life for as long as I had it, which is more than a lot of pets get. Plus, I find it very hard to believe that any animal or person wouldn’t find life bearable without me. After all, the vast majority of the population get along without me just fine.
