When they told me my dog didn’t have a soul I knew they were talking shite. My dog, Fred, named after my favourite strip cartoon, Fred Bassett, was the greatest soul in our world, everyone knew that… I was stewing on this new religion class idea as I took Fred for a mess around after school… ‘only humans have souls’ my religion teacher had divulged earlier that day… wherever I threw the tennis ball, Fred would astound me with his seek and retrieve utter commitment… when I didn’t let go, deceiving him and he went hard as if I had and he turned, scraping his nails on the suburban concrete and came back with no human wrong, just a total commitment to the ball, the game, the chase… the being alive… I knew he had a soul greater than mine, greater than the neighbours passing us dutifully on the suburban path, greater than my teachers who had just told me he had none… I threw the ball over Madigan’s 6 foot wall and Fred chased then paused a moment then leapt up the wall his nails just reaching the edge and with every fibre of his being then pulling himself up onto the top and throwing himself over and down the other side after the soggy green prey… I walked on knowing I was right… Fred was right… barks, yelps, scuttling through bushes noises and there he was back in front of me the ball rolled to my feet tongue lolling to one side eyes demanding a new throw… emphatic nowness from my best friend… I threw it straight up in the air but so he could see and he waited in front of me bouncing with impatience and as it came down he jumped to meet it right up in front of my eyes and as he caught it expertly I grabbed him out of the air and hugged him falling tumbling onto the grass and we rolled over each other and the ball flew off and Fred after it me letting him go just right and I lay there on the grass and Fred was instantly back the ball rolled to my ear and I laughed and laughed and laughed… I knew something I knew my teachers didn’t want me to know but I knew it… Fred licked my ear and my face and nosed the ball to my nose and backed off and barked and demanded I stop thinking and get with the programme…
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 02:48:39 +0000
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