Dave Holmes bonds with Junior on their first day together.
Photo via esquire.com
I’ll be honest: I never heard of Dave Holmes before today, although the actor, comedian, and former MTV veejay seems to have a lot of fans. He has one more now, after he penned a beautiful story on Esquire.com about his life with a beautiful Wheaten Terrier named Junior, who recently passed away. Holmes starts at the beginning, when he and his partner first decided to get a dog, and takes us through the whole process of finding, choosing, and living with Junior. For Holmes, it was a real process of discovery:
A dog introduces you to a simple, honest, new kind of love. Or maybe an old one: the one you felt when you were a kid and the world was full of wonder and affection and possibility and you only knew a couple of people and they were your everything. A year or so into having him, I was doing some writing in my office, and I looked down and he was there at my side, looking up at me. What does he want? I thought. I’ve fed him, we’ve walked, we’ve wrestled. What is it, Junior? And then it hit me: he just wants to be near me, because we’re friends.
And the, of course, their is the end of the story. It’s sad, but Holmes deals with it gracefully and philosophically. It’s a bittersweet reminder of what makes a life with a dog so special.
Dogs are the best. My Wheaten, Lucy Belle, just passed last week. What a wonderful soul! Beautiful pic
I have been there…everyone who has ever truly opened their heart to the love of a dog has been there too. And as much as it hurts when they have to leave, the time spent together is so worth it! I think that my heart expands enough to make room for another rescue because of the love that I have shared with the dogs that have come first. And I hope that the ones who have passed are looking down and saying “Okay, that one can join the pack…we will all have a really good time together when they join us!” Because the hearts of dogs are so much more pure than those of humans…