Two Special Dogs.

Good Dog Ginger is dead.

She died as she had lived for 16 years - quietly under a bush without trouble to anybody.  

We wrapped her in the old blanket she slept on by the back door in preference to the heated kennel she disdained except on the coldest nights.  We buried her with tears in the woods she loved so well.  

Ginger was an "outdoor" dog attuned to the cycles of nature.  In winter, she grew thick fur that enabled her to sleep comfortably on the snow.  In the spring, she shed her pelt and would lie patiently to let you pick loose fur from her coat.  Summer was a time to sit waist deep in the little spring-fed pond stocked with blue-gills and other strange wanderings.  Fall was her best season, a time to roll in dry leaves and dig for moles in the garden.  

She was not a smart dog, having mastered only one trick.  That was to "speak" for a tasty morsel.  Perhaps she was too smart to perform for strange human whims.  

Ginger earned her keep by a never-failing wag of the tail when you came home and ready companionship for any adventure.  

As a guard dog, she was temperamentally selective.  She fraternized with the cat next door, but drove off all other animals daring to venture on her turf.  She kept the gas man at bay, but invited strangers to make themselves at home.  

Ginger particularly liked children, seemingly believing herself to be one.  Touch football was her favorite game, even when she became stiff and half blind.  

Her long suit was love.  She sensed your moods and had a little lick of the hand when you were downcast.  

Surely gentle Ginger romps with kids, chases rabbits and guards the pearly gates in some canine Valhalla as she did in life.  

Ginger's ability to comprehend the thoughts and words of humans she loved astonished us.  She was proof that dogs do think and feel a wide range of emotions.  She reminded me of Speedy.  

Speedy was a dog who became famous in Charlotte County, Florida, for an act of compassion and rationalism worthy of the most enlightened human.  

As a puppy, Speedy was purchased by Earnest Lowe, for 50 cents, mostly to save him from being destroyed with the rest of an unwanted litter.  Speedy was short on pedigree, but long on amiable disposition.  

He was a yard dog who slept under the front porch and pretty much fended for himself except for an occasional handout of kitchen scraps.  

When a neighbor moved away and abandoned a little dog named Suzy, Speedy took her into his domain.  For nearly a year, they roamed and hunted together.  

One day, while miles away with Speedy, Suzy caught her leg in a hog fence and couldn't free it.  In her frantic attempts to get loose she tore the flesh to the bone.  

Speedy, equally distressed, was faced with a problem nature had not equipped him to handle.  Nevertheless, he set about gnawing through a four-inch fence post, hoping thereby to free his little friend.  But the wire still held Suzy fast, her leg about her head.  

Then Speedy deduced a plan to relieve Suzy's pain.  He scratched up dirt and built a large mound on which Suzy could lie and ease the excoriating pressure.  It may have taken him many hours.  

At a lodge near by, guests heard a dog howling off in the distance.  On the second day, one of the lodge employees decided to investigate, "Sounds like a dog in trouble."  

Finally he found Suzy, near death, and Speeding standing guard, still howling for help.  He crouched and whined as the rescuer approached.  He hadn't meant to cause trouble.  

The Good Samaritan cut Suzy loose and brought the two animals food and water.  They ate and drank then started for home, Suzy dragging her pain-wracked body and mangled foot.  Speedy led the way slowly, coming back often to encourage her.  

Eventually they made their way back to the front porch they knew as home.  Suzy, however, suffered from infection that had taken hold as she lay untold days and nights on that mound scraped up by Speedy.

To put Suzy out of her misery, Lowe shot her.  Speedy appeared to be astonished and shocked that his human would kill his friend after all the travail they had gone through.  

Speedy retreated under the porch and did not come out for several days.  

Soon the newspapers heard about Speedy and his remarkable efforts to save Suzy.  Photographers and reporters came.  Lowe managed to coax Speedy out from under the porch, but the forlorn dog came out hesitantly, wagging his tail tucked between his legs nervously.  What had he done now?

Before long other strange humans came around to pat Speedy on the head and bring him gifts.  He got a ceramic dish filled with doggy tid bits from the lodge employees.  The county commissioners gave him a brass studded leather collar with tag number 1.  The Punta Gorda council proclaimed him dog-citizen of the year.  

Dr. J. B. Rhine, director of parapsychology for Duke University, documented Speedy's deed and opened a new project to study the reasoning powers of dogs.  The national magazine "Dog World", usually devoted to pedigreed animals, gave Speedy its Canine of Distinction award.  

Speedy appreciated it all.  He wagged his tail and licked the hands of the dignitaries who came to his front porch.  But a far-away look in his eyes seemed to say, "Gee, wouldn't it be great if Suzy were here too?"

The adulation was short lived.  The dog that amazed psychologists and commanded the admiration of well wishers for his human-like compassion and reasoning ability, fell victim to a depraved human - a dog poisoner.  

They buried Speedy in Lowe's back yard, along side Suzy - together again for eternity.

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