While Walking My Dog’s Ghost

Posted on by

bunny 

While Walking My Dog’s Ghost

I spot a baby rabbit
lying still in a clump of grass
no wider than my hand.

It quivers, but I pretend
not to have seen, for fear
that the dog, ghost or not,

will frighten and chase it
into the brush, beyond
its mother’s range,

perhaps to become lost
and thirsty, malnourished,
filthy, desperate, much

like the dog when we
found each other that hot,
dry evening so long ago.

jackboy

 

83 thoughts on “While Walking My Dog’s Ghost”

  3. Heart-warming tribute to the dog AND to the rabbit – to the then and now, and the essential tension between species. Our Labrador impulsively gives chase to small creatures I’d much prefer to observe peacefully. Reading this, acknowledging the day will come when I won’t need to tug back on her leash – I will miss the tension.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply ↓

    • Jackboy the Cattledog was quite the predator, and I had to restrain him from time to time. He managed to “catch” a porcupine at our country place, where he was never leashed, and you can imagine the ensuing trauma. I miss the dog, I miss the walks.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

      • The only catch for our Lab (now 8 years old) has been one not-quite-ready-to-fly dove retrieved from the gutter and released into human hands a bit damp but otherwise unharmed. But she scares things with her exuberant chase! Once a skunk took a stand … we hope that remains a once.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply ↓

  7. My ghosts are cats. They were indoor in life and remain indoor in death so the creatures outside are still safe. Indoors their presence is like whispers in another room. I miss them.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply ↓

  8. Beautiful. I haven’t owned a dog for many years, but I do remember him very well. A Yorkshire Terrier named Twerp, his method of waking me up each morning was to stand on my forehead and wag his stub of a tail to tell me he had to go out. Quite a character, that one! 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply ↓

  14. Well done, for the poem and the dog. I have a similar story about my Popsy. My eyes fill with tears when I think of what could have happened to that bedraggled little kitten, had she not staggered up our driveway one late summer’s evening. Sally

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓

  15. hello o at the edges its dennis the vizsla dog hay aww i am shoor yore dogs ghost enjoyd the wawkeez and i am glad the baby bunny did not get skayrd!!! yoo no i think my brother and sisters ghosts mite stil vizzit us heer frum time to time i do not see them but i think i smel them stil!!! ok bye

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • We used to have hordes of cottontails on our rural property. When we went outside in the morning before dawn and turned on the lights, they’d scatter. Jackboy never caught one, but we stopped letting him go out on his own in the dark after he “caught” a porcupine.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  36. Pingback: While Walking My Dog’s Ghost — O at the Edges | Isabel's Dog Blog

  37. Pingback: While Walking My Dog’s Ghost — O at the Edges – Linda Saraco "The Animal Person"

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.