The Journal Writer

1/3/2010 - The Second Promise

Greetings,

I would like to introduce you to Thunderheart. My second Promise.

She was my husband's Siberian Husky. Our daughter and I purchased Thunderheart for my husband's 50th birthday. He loved this dog. She was his furry companion.

Thunderheart was the only dog Alan had ever had. I knew he love this breed and I had no idea what to get him for his birthday. I was determined the perfect gift would be a Siberian Husky. What an amazing surprise gift! Our daughter and I began an endless search for the "perfect" one. It was a good thing that I had thought of it several months before his birthday. What I thought would be an easy gift to find, turned out to not be so easy! Finally, two weeks before the big day, I received a phone call. The Veterinarian informed me they had found a puppy, I would want. Sure enough, she was perfect!

Alan was very surprised and our work began potty training her. It took forever! Alan and I felt we only saw each other as we were coming and going, out the door with his new puppy. After many months of shampooing carpets, throwing books down in the middle of sentences, and jumping out of bed to get her outside quickly, seemed like a never-ending ritual.  

She finally became a very well-behaved member of the family. Alan taught her not to only catch a tennis ball, but to throw it back to you. He worked with her to get up on her hind-legs and literally dance including turning in perfect twirls around the room. She would stand on her hind-legs and click her front paws together when she wanted food or water. She was amazing and so was Alan at training her.

Wherever Alan was, Thunderheart was right beside him. The bedroom was off limits, because one night she scared us half to death by jumping completly over the bed. All we saw was this dog flying through the air like a plane, and landing on the floor like a spring, on the other side. That was it! She slept in the living-room after that. I did not spend much time with her. She was defiantly Alan's dog.

I promised to take care of her for the rest of her life. I never thought she would out-live Alan. But she did.

What a hard promise to keep. She mourned his death until she made herself sick. She search room to room looking for him. She would howl constantly for the first few days. My heart was breaking and she was a constant reminder that he was really gone and not coming back. Finally, I found myself comforting her as she comforted me. The howling stopped and she is now sleeping in a corner of my bedroom. She still, ocassional, will look through the house for him, but at least it is no longer constantly.

Thunderheart is now my friend and companion. We share something in common. We both loved the same man and we are trying to help each other get past the fact, he is just gone and never coming back.