A beautiful heart can bring things into your life that all the money in the world couldn’t obtain.
She was found as a stray on the streets of Chula Vista. It was clear she had given birth; how many times, we will never know. She gnawed her teeth down to the nub not from age but flea infestation. Her skin was a mess. She had benign tumors on her stomach that had to be removed. The San Diego Basset Hound Rescue called us to foster her. Jim answered the phone. Of course, he couldn’t say no.
When Jim called me, he made it clear Brooke was a foster, not another addition to our crowded canine family. When he told me this, I was skeptical. Fostering wouldn’t last long, I thought. I knew us all too well. When Brooke came to our house, it took no time at all for her to jump on the couch and make our home her home. Jim knew then that this critter was permanently part of the family. I love him deeply for his big heart. Jim named her Brooke. It fit perfectly for this creature. She was like a river of calm.
Brooke had been spayed and in a unique form of tribute a heart was stitched on her stomach. I thought it a sign. It seemed more a symbol of her loving spirit as opposed to the technical aspect of being spayed.
Today, Brooke suffers from arthritis in her spine. She can no longer get on the couch by herself. When you look in her eyes, one blue and one brown, you see a kindness and beauty that reminds you to try and spread it where you can. Life is too short otherwise. She cries to us in the early morning hours because she wants breakfast and perhaps even our attention. She talks in her sleep. Soon after I go to the garden, she communicates loudly, because she knows she gets a treat when I come down for a break, which she would prefer happen sooner, not later. The ritual is sometimes inconvenient, but I can’t deny her. She simply makes me happy.
We will never understand why Brooke was left to roam the streets, but it was our good fortune that she came into our lives. She’s a rescue, but she also rescued us, giving us another reminder of the power of love in the body of a basset hound.
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