The Czar received some nice thoughts from all of you on his empty leash vignette, and evidently it struck a chord with some of you. But you know perfectly well that the Gormogons have the smartest readership around, and no better example of this is the quite touching story that MCE submitted to us. With his permission:

Last September I helped a friend at a fundraiser for his kid’s youth soccer team on the other side of the county. By noon my services were no longer needed, but since my friend (and ride) wasn’t going to be done until much later I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and walk the several miles to the local town for an ice cream.

On the way to town I noticed a veterinary clinic set a way back from the road. When on my way back I passed by the same clinic several hours later, I saw a couple standing outside. With their back to me I could see the husband had one arm draped around the shoulders of his wife as she buried her head into his chest. With his other arm, the husband was taking a small box from a woman in nursing scrubs.

All was clear in an instant; not only their loss but what was to come. The day was beautiful with clear skies and mild weather, but for that couple all they would see, all they would taste for the remainder of that day would be ashes. On their way home they would pass people getting on their lives, perhaps in their grief they would linger a bit too long at a traffic light and get honked at by someone who felt delayed in his urgent quest to get more flowerbed mulch. They would arrive home to find an emptier house and know that tomorrow and the day after that and so on would be heavy ones, that they had embarked on a path of pain.

I wondered in that brief instant how long would it take for them to place this day in the proper context, when the pain of that day would be outweighed by the memories of the happiness and joy that their friend had brought to them. I knew it wouldn’t be soon.

How strange we are. I know pets aren’t children, but we in 21st Century America don’t expect to outlive our children and yet we willingly go through the cycles of life and death of our beloved little friends so many times. We know that one day we will be standing outside the vet’s office, receiving a small box, and embarking on that same path of pain.

I would like to think I have seen and done a lot of things in my life, but I’m not sure if I could be as tough as that woman in the nursing scrubs.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.