time Archives - A Cowdogs Advice

The boss lost one of her best friends last week, an old cowboy she had known for 40 years.

They had connected over shaggy cows long ago, and stayed friends through lively conversations about ranching, art, literature, weather, and more shaggy cows.

Even after time and moves changed daily or weekly visits into infrequent phone calls, they would pick up the conversation as if they’d just met over lunch the day before.

He loved her art and was her biggest fan and strongest encourager.

Their humor, passions and joy aligned. Sometimes family was just along for the ride.

She always knew a call may come someday, given his health problems and old age. But it was still sad, unexpected and far too soon.

It always is.

It is one of those times that bring up memories – time, goodbye and old friends –

so, I am revisiting past thoughts on my own old friends here:

If you live long enough, you may be blessed with a few old friends. And if you live long enough, you may have to say goodbye to old friends, too. That is the not-quite-right, heart-rending reality of this world, but don’t let it wound the memories the years have given.

Some friends in the jeep

You know, a cowdog has old friends. Because we are loyal to a fault, steadfast and devoted to those we call our own, we have a rock-solid bond that goes to the cellular level. Death doesn’t merely divide us, then, it splinters us and tears us apart!

Which is worse – for me to leave first, knowing I’m breaking my old cowboy’s heart for the first time, wondering if he can even go on without this cowdog by his side? Or for him to leave me, waiting at the gate, listening with weak ears for that truck to rumble down the road, that never will again?

We have canine friends, too. When I first came here, I met Cobra and Piper.

Cobra aka “Billy Bob” and Piper

They lived with the daughter Jessie and her husband – this was long before the baby Sprout showed up. Right away, I liked the big hound, but that hyper little Border Collie, Piper, was too much! He and I tangled a few times, two cowdogs who both refused to give ground or back down. Well, after some swift years, my friend Cobra trotted on, across what people call a Rainbow Bridge. I don’t know where that is, but I watched his sad family bury him up in our meadow, in a corner under the aspen, past the lilac hedge.

There he joined Ruger, the great Heeler who ramrodded this outfit before me, and the ashes of Derby and Aurora. I have helped mom plant flowers all over there,

and she has put stone markers there for each, too. Piper and I were friends by then and even worked together to run a few rank cows.

Ruger

There is a corner of Dog Hill for cats, too, and I even miss them.

Tigger, Willow, Miss Kitty … there among the white roses and lilies.

Where did all the time go? Now my friend Piper is up there, too; I feel old and tired, my legs ache when I climb the hill to visit them, and I don’t hear the wind in the aspen so well anymore.

Out in the orchard the horses are buried. I chased them once, playing tag in the pasture, sometimes trailing cows with them, keeping them from the gate a few times, too.

But I can’t be sad, when I can remember so many happy times with my friends! And we only have today. I was blessed to be rescued to this place, and to pour out relentless Heeler joy on everyone! I have no doubt there is a heaven and we will run and play there together someday. The God who wants the best for us will let us rejoin old friends, and He is keeping them there with Him until then.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” – Matthew 5:4

It is a capricious spring weather week here for us; I laid on the porch and watched snow, wind, sunshine, snow, white-out, wind, sun, fog, and big-flaked straight down snow – again. It has been unseasonably cold for this time of year – again. And it’s that time again.

But when I hear the news, I am happy we have food, clothes, heat – and a house we don’t need to leave because tanks are rolling up the road.

Time is swift, everything changes, yet so much remains the same. A year ago, we watched the start of a vicious war – and still it goes on.

It is sad that always, there is war, invasion, fighting. There are self-serving tyrants that will not allow others to live peaceably. There are fools that run toward anarchy, just because it is there.

But when the worst shows up, it also brings out the best. Large and small acts of kindness and aid are everywhere. Lots of prayers.

Among the changes of time, this weekend; Daylight Savings Time means the clock gets turned ahead one hour. It seems a silly thing in these times, to worry about what we call the hour. I’ve never understood how changing what you call it “saves daylight.”

Seems to this dog that we get the same moments of sunshine and moonlight, pre-determined by God – no matter what it is called.

But mercifully, this time of year, those moments are ever-increasing in light. I like earlier mornings and long sunsets.

Daylight saving time returns to the U.S. on Sunday and is scheduled to end in early November as usual — unless Congress decides it’s time for a change. A proposal to end the decades-old practice of making Americans change their clocks twice a year is again being considered in Washington DC.

Under the measure, daylight saving time would be made permanent, so that most Americans would shift their clocks one hour forward Sunday and leave them that way. As it stands now, those clocks will need to be shifted back an hour on the first Sunday of November, when standard time resumes. Doesn’t matter what we call it, that time of year it is just plain dark a lot!