{"id":27373,"date":"2016-10-02T19:11:32","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T02:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/?p=27373"},"modified":"2016-10-02T19:17:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T02:17:59","slug":"isabelle-alive-and-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/02\/isabelle-alive-and-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Isabelle, alive and well"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might recall that late last winter I stumbled upon a most touching doggie grave<\/a> in the woods.<\/p>\n

\"doggrave-01_030516\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"doggrave-04_030516\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(More photos at the link.)<\/p>\n

Isabelle Boothe (of various spellings) had died only a few days earlier. It said so on the marker. And a whole family of children had written and drawn their goodbyes. The plastic-protected mementos fastened to the cross also included photos of the beloved dog returning from a victorious hunt and more. All in all, a great act of love by a family for their too-soon-dead pet.<\/p>\n

I’ve visited the grave many times since then, saying my hellos to Isabelle.<\/p>\n

Then …<\/p>\n

Today I went grocery shopping. Just ahead of me as I walked in the door, I spotted a mother and two young children, each wearing an athletic jacket with the name “Boothe” on the back. I wondered …<\/p>\n

I wasn’t going to say anything, but as we shopped, we kept turning up in the same aisles. So finally I approached the woman. “Excuse me. May I ask you an odd question? Did you have a dog named Isabelle?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, we do,” she answered. Do. Not did.<\/p>\n

“Well, I’ve seen her grave, with all the notes and …”<\/p>\n

“Oh. We didn’t think she was going to make it through that night. So we dug the grave and made all those things. But she did.”<\/p>\n

“She’s still alive?”<\/p>\n

“Yes.”<\/p>\n

“Oh good,” I said. “I’m glad. She was too young to die. I thought the memorial was very touching.” <\/p>\n

But I must admit I was and remain a bit flummoxed that the grave I’ve been visiting all summer, the grave with all those heartbreaking mementos, that collar draped over it, and those very specific dates of birth and death … contains no actual dog. That the dog honored with all those farewells is running around, as healthy as you and me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might recall that late last winter I stumbled upon a most touching doggie grave in the woods. (More photos at the link.) Isabelle Boothe (of various spellings) had died only a few days earlier. It said so on the marker. And a whole family of children had written and drawn their goodbyes. The plastic-protected mementos fastened to the cross also included photos of the beloved dog returning from a victorious hunt and more. All in all, a great act of love by a family for their too-soon-dead pet. I’ve visited the grave many times since then, saying my hellos…<\/p>\n

Continue readingIsabelle, alive and well<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dogs-and-cats","category-rural-and-small-town-living","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27373"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27384,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27373\/revisions\/27384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}