Major

When I was seven, my mom brought home a puppy.  He was Border Collie and Blue Healer.  After rolling around several names, they decided on Major.  Major was a puppy when he got a piece of straw in his eye, which blinded him in that eye.  This made him very skittish.  Brushing up against him on his right side would likely get you bit. 

When I was nine, I was diagnosed with leukemia.  Major never left my side.  At one point, I got extremely sick from one of the blood transfusions.  I lost so much weight, that I lost all of my muscle tone.  I was so weak, I couldn’t even open my eyes, let alone walk.  I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but I was so weak I could not get back into bed.  I didn’t want to wake up Mom or Dad because they had not been getting any sleep.  I had never stayed a minute alone in the hospital, night or day.  And I had been in the hospital a lot.  So I curled up on the floor in front of the heater after pulling a blanket off the bed.  Major curled up next to me. 

I left home at the end of my junior year, and was homeless.  While I was gone, my parents had to put him to sleep.  I never got a chance to say good-bye.  About three years later, I had a dream.  I dreamt that I was on my way to a nursery to pick up some plants (I have always love plants).  I glanced in my rear-view mirror, and major was lying in the back seat.  I stopped the car, which was near a large field of wild flowers.  Major and I walked until sundown.  Then, we drove back to my house, where I had an old barn.  He said that he had just come back to say good-bye, but he had to go.  He said he loved me and would always be with me.  Then, he walked into the barn, and as the sun went down I heard a wolf howl.  I went into the barn and looked in one of the stalls.  There was a bunch of bones lying in the dirt. 

When I was a kid, Major would come check on everyone in the family, making rounds the entire night.  He would climb up on the bed and lay across my feet.  If I so much as moved a tiny bit, he would get off, so I always stayed as still as possible.  Occasionally, I feel that old familiar weight across my legs, especially during troubled times. 

God made all creatures and all creatures have souls.  God just made Major an extra special soul.  He provides me with great comfort when I need him most – God and Major.