Queenie and Howard: Our Dogs are Always With Us

A couple days ago I was walking with my handsome young cocker boy Darby in our lovely St. John's Woods. An elderly gentleman met us on the path and immediately cried out, to my dog "Oh, you remind me of my cocker, Queenie, except she was buff." We stopped and talked to Howard and once Darby got over his rescue dog skittishness, he allowed Howard to pet him. Howard told me about his beloved cocker spaniel, Queenie, whom he used to take hunting. Howard claimed she was the best pheasant dog ever and once pointed a small bush where they were hunting. Howard said, ""Queenie,. you must be wrong this time." And then she flushed out a big pheasant from that little bush. She was right." " Howard introduced himself to me and I to Darby and me, said we ere pleased to meet each other and went our way, smiling. Later in the walk, which is big, but circular, we met Howard again. He stopped to pet Darby again and said, "At the end of Queenie's life, I took her hunting with me one last time and she got so tired I carried her. When I saw a pheasant, I put her close to the bush and she let me know the pheasant was there. She was so proud." I wished him well as we walked our ways and thought again, since I had lost an lives even when they're passed on." Howard is a beautiful man, and Queenie was an amazing dog.