A little over 14 years {a lifetime!} ago I walked into the RSPCA shelter in Sydney with the boy I was dating. We went to see if there was a poundie we could rescue. As happens every time I go near a pound, I cried almost all the way around. So many gorgeous faces looking out at us, some too scared to look out, others seemingly resigned to their fate. How could we decide on just one?

We were almost all the way around when we saw the sign: puppies. A very new litter {9 or 10 weeks from memory} of them. All in an enclosure, jumbled up together as only puppies do. We stopped by for a minute. The shelter staff brought in some food. They mostly squished in beside each other around the bowl.

Except for one.

One of them climbed up on the backs of his litter mates, put one front paw on the forehead of the puppy to his left, the other to his right, and helped himself to a snack. We looked at each other and laughed. We needed to meet this puppy.

When he was done eating, they brought him out and put him on the grass with us. Puppy tummy totally distended, he looked up as if to say you can pat me anywhere, but just don’t touch my tummy!

Needless to say, he never did get back into that enclosure with his litter mates. Because Jackson {Jacko} had met his best mate, and I’d found the perfect birthday present for the boy.

From that moment they went everywhere together. Jacko was a quick study and learned to do exactly as his Dad asked him to do. Most of the time. He was a puppy after all.

I have many happy memories of his antics. Like the time we left him while we went out, safely in the laundry with paper, towels, water, food. Only to come home a few hours later to a puppy frothing at the mouth and laundry detergent from one end of the room to the other. It had been on a very high shelf. Little Jacko had managed to mountain climb his way up the toilet and the washing machine to the high shelf. You try doing the Heimlich maneuver on a 12 week old puppy!

Jacko was the first puppy to steal my adult heart, but he was his Dad’s dog. So when our life paths went separate ways, Jacko went with him. We had a few visits but I think that was just hard on everyone. Anyone who has had a relationship end with a pet involved will understand the heartbreak is almost double. I remember actually asking the vet if he’d forget me {Jacko that is!}.

Jacko gave me a toy version of himself which I put away until I could face it without being sad. When Bella arrived in my life, I gave the lovey Jacko to her. 9 and a half years later, she and Jacko are still inseparable.

Little wonder I often thought of him.

Saturday. Doing Saturday things. At the supermarket then heading home to keep packing. I get a message. I look twice at the screen. It’s from Jacko’s Dad. Who I have had no contact with in over a decade. My breath catches. You know when you know what a message is going to say before you read it?

I waited until I got to the car to read it – and was glad for my very short drive home.

Jacko, the sweet little puppy rescued from the pound all those years ago, got his wings today. After what his Dad called a beautiful life. What a lovely thing to be able to say about your best friend, your shadow for 14 plus years.

Run free Puppy of Love … you’ve taken a piece of my heart with you.

My heart goes out to your Dad and your family Jacko. If only all poundies could have such happy lives filled with so much love.

 {Story shared with his Dad’s blessing.}