Dakota by Jim

HOWL FOR DAKOTA
You were insane as a pup.
Came into the world with a defiant “woo woo woo”
And more energy than Mobil Oil
Ate yer own poop yer whole life
When you weren’t lounging in the grass by the pool in Florida
Feasting on Honey Belles dropped from the orange tree
Or taking dips at your leisure in the hot sun
And chewing! Chew chew chew! What was that all about?!
You could jump as high as my head until you were seven
And often did tugging and pulling and grabbing my hand
And begging me to play.
Let’s play!
So we played.
We ran and we swam and I threw balls until my arm hurt
But try as I might I couldn’t exhaust you
We lost you once when you were one
And you ate that rug
And you died on the operating table as the vet pulled it out of you.
Strand by strand
But instead of going to the light
You came back. Good girl!
Lost you a second time after we moved to Minnesota
And you slipped your chain in the back yard and went. . .
Where?
For three days I looked for you and finally found you
In the slammer in Hopkins.
After you bit a cop. Bad girl!
But it turned out you were only three blocks from our house
The whole time
And here I was driving the streets of Minneapolis
Looking for your body.
So you came back. Good girl!
We all got four and a half more years of Dakota
And you got four and a half more years of works at Starring Lake
Of barking at the lawn mower.
(You hated that lawn mower)
Of baseball with the boys in the back yard
Of eating yer own poop
Of being too smart for your own good
Of being sweet and sassy and stubborn and stout-hearted
Of barking so deep and powerfully it made my toes curl
Of sleeping in your green chair
Of fighting the garden hose
(You hated that hose)
Of licking the kitchen floor clean of crumbs
With The World’s Longest Tongue
Of smiling your happy smile
Of stealing stuff out of the garage so I’d chase you.
Of grabbing stuff out of my trash can so I’d chase you
Of telling me off with a “woo woo woo”
Of singing in your chains like the sea
Until I lost you for the third and final time.
At 4 a.m. on a cold January morning
Just 10 days after the vet told me you had
One to 6 months to live
I awoke that morning to hear your final exhalation
In the dark
And I didn’t cry
Not then
Oddly not then
I tried to go back to sleep and heard the world come alive
Slowly
For the first time in 3,382 days
In nine and a quarter years
In 483 weeks
In 4.87 million minutes
Without The Girlfriend
And I knew going on without you would be hard
But I didn’t know just then how hard
And I didn’t know just then how long it would take
Until I didn’t think about you every minute
And I still don’t know
So my Curly Girlie this is my Howl for you
Thank you for everything
Give ’em the same heck up there in Heaven
That you gave all of us down here on earth
I love you
And I miss you my Good Girl.

Jim