"Oyez a Beaumont"

[MARYDVM]

One of the most moving things I've ever read about the loss of a dog is an essay called "Oyez a Beaumont" in the book Animal Happiness by Vicki Hearne. The author answers a student's question - "What do the experts do when their dogs die?"
"...O rare and dauntless Gunner. Even his hip, broken when a prostate tumor grew right through the bone, did not stop the courage of his gaiety, but I did. My friend Dick Koehler said,'He is lucky to have a good friend like you' to encourage me, you see, to get on with it, kill him, and Dick was right, of course, right, because when there is nothing much left of a dog but his wounds you should bury those decently.
Until he died, he was immortal, and the death of an immortal is an event that changes the world. That is all for now about Gunner, because what it does to you when such a dog dies is not fit to print.
'Der Tod ist gross,' writes Rilke. 'Death is huge.' But various psychologists deny that it is as huge as all that when it is an animal who is mourned. .... That is the way psychological authorities talk - 'Eventually an animal can be replaced,' they write in their books - but that is not how the experts talk.I realize that psychologists and suchlike are generally understood to be experts, but I have met none who were experts in the ways my good Gunner's work with scent developed, especially when he started scenting out the human heart. ... In over a quarter of a century of training I have never met an animal who turned out to be replaceable. ... There exist mighty dogs, the dangerous kind who take hold of your heart and do not let go. But avoiding the great ones does not get you out of it. If... you already know what a great dog is then that knowledge marks you. If you do not know, then you are still in danger, for if you give her a civilized upbringing, every collie is Lassie in propria persona, killing that snake in your heart, driving off the cougar that lurks there, sending for help. This is not because all dogs are great dogs but rather because all dogs are both irreplaceable and immortal and as Rilke says, 'Der Tod ist gross'. "