from The Darkest Evening of the Year...

Mum just finished reading "The Darkest Evening of the Year" by author and Golden Retriever-lover Dean Koontz. A Golden Retriever plays an essential part in this latest novel, but that not why we're writing this. One of the characters speaks about the perfect truth of loving dogs...

"Dogs' lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know that the pain is coming, you're going to lose a dog, and there's going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can't support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There's such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware it comes with an unbearable price. Maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and for the mistakes we make because of those illusions."

Having lost his beloved Golden, Trixie, Dean Koontz speaks from his heart as he perfectly put into words what loving, and losing, dogs is all about.