Dec 22 2009

Lonely

Published by at 9:53 am under Country Life,Dogs

luna
Luna

Wherever I am, there’s always Pooh,
There’s always Pooh and Me.
Whatever I do, he wants to do,
“Where are you going today?” says Pooh:
“Well, that’s very odd ‘cos I was too.
Let’s go together,” says Pooh, says he.
“Let’s go together,” says Pooh.

— “Us Two”, by A.A. Milne

The poem could have been written for Lucky the deer and Luna the dog. You rarely, if ever, see one without the other. Luna’s family took Lucky in when she was a tiny, orphaned fawn, and dog and deer have been together ever since. Luna is very protective of Lucky – I think she thinks Lucky is her baby – and if she doesn’t know you, will try and herd you away. “Step away from the deer!”

Luna’s family is in Mexico for the next few weeks, and Luna seems to miss them. She’s barking more than usual (she sounds like the Hound of the Baskervilles. If you didn’t know better, you’d be scared of her) and is often hanging around my house. Ever since they left, I’ve made an effort to spend a little time with Luna each day, petting her, talking to her, and throwing the stick. She’s really happy to fetch, but unclear on the concept of dropping the stick afterwards, so we go through a lot of sticks.

Good thing we live in the woods.

A couple of days ago, I came back from a rainy trip to town with a trunk full of groceries. As I decanted them, both Lucky and Luna stuck their heads into the trunk, sniffing curiously. It was pouring, but I took a minute to pet them, and as I looked into their big, trusting eyes, I felt that I was the lucky one.

4 responses so far

4 Responses to “Lonely”

  1. # Mikeon 22 Dec 2009 at 10:45 am

    Indeed your are.

  2. # Joyon 22 Dec 2009 at 5:29 pm

    Poor Luna, but at least Lucky is there when you are not.

    What is Henry/Henrietta doing now that Luna is at large?

    jx

  3. # suzyon 22 Dec 2009 at 6:43 pm

    Henrietta rarely goes outside, so it’s a moot point with her. Also, Luna lives outside anyway, whether her family is here or not, so she meanders around the property anyway. So she’s pretty much at large all the time!

  4. # Guyon 23 Dec 2009 at 4:36 am

    Animals get attached and do miss their owners as you can see, it’s nice that you take time to make them feel needed, after all, that’s all they want to do, please you.