Oklahoma Rosie

A Rose Like None Other.....

She just wandered up from nowhere with a bullet hole in her side and ribs showing defined like ripples on the water.

Her tears were green and thick. So thick you couldn't tell if they were coming from her big brown eyes or from her nose. Her tongue long and parched hung from a mouth long having tasted a meal.

He went for his rifle. Poor thing. Best to just put her down. To end her suffering. She stared at the gun and slowly eased to the ground. Her eyes told us that death was her friend.

I pled for her life. For one more day or perhaps just one more hour. I filled a bowl with water and offered it to her. Was it so she could die with her thirst met or was it to ease my own conscience. To save my soul.

She drank. Slowly at first and soon having remembered what to do, she welcomed the drink. We gave her another day. And another.

Soon she decided to eat. Jut a bit at first. She began to warily test her legs and explore the new territory.

Each day we came home expecting to find her gone or perhaps just gone to Heaven.

She was always there. Greeting us with a wagging tail and a heart full of gratitude.

Before we knew it, her eyes were clear. Her legs steady and her ribs showed no more. She had a look about her that was almost.......well yes, Rosy was how she was looking. Plumb Rosy. So "Rosie" it was.

So in love with us. It was almost as if she had been nowhere else. Ever.

We had her checked out and it was a miracle they said. Rosie was spayed but unable to begin heart worm prevention as she was already infected, but she was given tonics and B-12 to build her up, and doggie downers to keep her calm and free from tearing her hide off from the incessant scratching of the mange that possessed her.

Rosie thrived and she loved. God she loved. Gratitude was always evident. The time finally came for us to leave Oklahoma and return to our home in Louisiana and Rosie warily accepted the challenge. She gave it her best but simply didn't understand. The car ride, the climate and the new urban surroundings. Too much human activity.

She mourned Oklahoma like a jilted lover and her anxieties returned. A glimmer of protruding bones and the incessant manic scratching resumed. Her eyes once again dull and complacent. She became homesick for what she'd left behind.

We did the only kind thing we could do for Rosie and took her back "home". Home to the baren fields, chicken farms, cayotes and other strays she knew as family.

With tears and heavy hearts we arranged for a neighbor to care for Rosie and left food, treats, medicines and other supplies feeling guilt and shame nonetheless.

We were told that Rosie stayed and adjusted for almost a week and quietly left.

Toward the end of her life with us she had come to know better health, having her needs met, a new love of humans and trust. But it was time for her to move on to the familiar.

We miss her. We will always miss her. Never far from our thoughts. We did what we could. Or did we?