Ginger's gone

Ginger is gone.
I was working on the side of the house, leveling out ground in preparation to plant the buffalo grass we think would work well out here, when I heard a Thump-Thump as a white pickup sped past at the seventy or eighty miles per hour they travel out here. It’s a sound I fear hearing out here. Running up front I saw Ben and Gretchen sniffing the middle of the road and yelled to get them off of it, all the while looking desperately for Ginger. I saw her body thirty feet down from where her mom and dad had been investigating. When they heard me scream they knew it was more than my just being angry and hurried to the back of the house. I know that Ginger didn’t feel a thing as her neck was broken. Cherie ran out saying “What’s wrong” so I let her know that we had just lost our puppy. She seemed to take it better than me.







When Joe picked up that contract this morning he noticed Ginger and commented on how beautiful she was. We talked about what a joy she was and as we did Ben and Gretchen came across the highway. He loved how Ginger and Ben played and loved each other. I said that we wanted to get a bright orange collar to make it easier to see and explained that our biggest concern was the danger that road represented.






Goodbye Ginger. At least there's a beautiful sunset to see you go.


We’ve already accepted the fact that Ben and Gretchen stood a high chance of getting run over and because they were strays realize there is little we can do to keep them from wandering. But Ginger…no, that wasn’t acceptable. I’d told Cherie that my biggest worry was that she would follow Ben and Gretchen across the road, that they would teach her this bad habit and it seems that is what happened. If we had the money we would have bought the electronic shock collar and perimeter fence devices to prevent that but there is no sense playing the “what if” or “if only” game. We wanted to get the shock collar thing for Trixie and Rascal back when we got them but couldn’t afford it. They learned that getting close to the road would evoke serious consequences but Ben and Gretchen have lured Trixie across a couple of times.

Tomorrow I will have to take some bleach and clean up the blood that is in the road because the smell is drawing the others out there. I let Ben go look, watching carefully to insure no cars or trucks were coming. He knew. He tucked his tail between his legs and came back to me. I let Gretchen smell Ginger’s body to let her know as well, with the probably vain hope she will realize just how dangerous the road is.

Love always comes with a cost. We loved Ginger, loved to watch her grow, loved to watch her play, loved to see her interact and be accepted with the others, loved to….I could go on forever but I have to let go. I loaded the burn barrel and cremated her remains. The ashes will be incorporated with the compost and thus nourish what we grow. Bye Ginger. You blessed us while you were here.