Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: The Family Pet (05/15/08)
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TITLE: Liberty Longings | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dianne Janak
05/19/08 -
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The memory of his dad’s old red pickup with his mutt-dog riding in the bed behind him, panting saliva, and breathing in the country air, seemed to him a heavenly dream beyond his reach.
“I want my sons to make something of themselves. Farming life is too difficult. The droughts are hellish then the floods ruin the crops. Get out of this life, get a degree and do better.”
Respecting his dad, Robert listened to his advice. Farming was ingrained in him, but he wanted make him proud.
He found a wife in college who gave him three beautiful daughters. They bought a starter home in the suburbs with a small yard, but his restlessness haunted him. He wanted both worlds. After twelve years of marriage, Robert's wish became obsession.
“I want an old red pickup with a huge mutt dog.”
Robert’s desire seemed strange to his city-girl wife, but at least it wasn’t a red convertible with a young woman. She complied.
Daisy was a freebie found in the classifieds. To Robert she was beautiful , but to others she was an ugly yellow mutt, clumsy in her one-hundred- pound body, restless, hyper, but harmless. Robert adored her.
He soon felt sorry for Daisy being confined to their small yard. He wanted her to run free as farm dogs did, so he searched for a piece of land near a stream. He promised her a play-date every Saturday morning.
On those mornings as soon as Daisy saw the leash, she’d bark incessantly, tail -wagging and saliva falling in anticipation of her romp with no fences. Those happy days bonded them . As he watched Daisy run, mind pictures of his childhood entertained Robert as the memories reeled past his eyes. Liberty was sweet, even if lived through a few moments a week with his dog-pal.
At times he wished he could ride Daisy like his old horse, and never return. For Daisy, these precious romps through the fields would also become a yearning memory.
As time went on, and Robert’s job became more demanding, his Saturday dates with Daisy became less frequent. Missing them she started digging under the fence, leaping over it , or chewing through it to get out. She didn’t want to escape her home. She just needed her run. She wanted the feel of the wind off her back and experience the rabbit- smells of the fields. Daisy appeared depressed.
Robert was overloaded at work, and had to start travelling more. His growing daughters’ needs for attention increased, and Robert’s time was precious.
Daisy’s escapes from the fence were becoming a nuisance to the neighbors, and the complaints coming to his wife were starting to cause tensions in their marriage.
They tried electric fences, nails in the wooden fence to discourage eating the wood, and all kinds of barriers to keep her inside her four corners of earth. No matter what they did, Daisy’s determination to run free beat them.
She always came home, tired , but happy at the relief of her owners. They lived with the fear that next time she would be hit by a car or even worse, cause a terrible accident.
Robert knew one day after the last neighbor complained, he had no choice. Daisy was twelve now, with heart trouble but not slowing down her determination to escape the yard.
She had become a neighborhood menace. Her charging run scared some of the young children, and the moms were worried. After prayer and consultation with some dog experts, Robert knew he had no choice but to call the vet.
“It breaks my heart to do this, but I have to put her down. I can’t run the risk of someone else’s safety or hers.”
On his drive home, tears streaming down his face, he pictured himself as a young boy, riding the tractor the first time with his dad, carefree, and deliriously happy.
He had to forgive himself, his dad, and even Daisy.
His dad’s advice, his own restlessness, his desire to set Daisy free, and Daisy’s determination to not let the boundaries confine her became life’s drama with no villain. Just life.
Now Daisy runs free forever.
And someday so shall Robert.
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