As many of you have heard, our beloved dog Alice passed away peacefully in her sleep early yesterday morning. We estimate that her age is 16 years. She never exceeded 16 lbs. of weight. She was brave and could be ferocious. She bit a couple of humans and caused consternation with State Farm Insurance in one bite incident. She would walk around the area where we live in the dead of night. When night falls around here, you have very unpleasant predators prowling around including coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, and even mountain lions. She never got attacked. One time Alice escaped from the house and ran out onto Highway One, a freeway near our house. Normally that would be a fatal event for a dog. In that case, all cars stopped and allowed several of us to rescue her.
No one knew where Alice came
from. Her early months were a mystery. One of my most beloved books in life is
"The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende. It is the story of
three generations of spirited and independent Chilean women from the early
1900s to 1973. A mysterious dog comes into the family's life early in the book.
No one knows where the dog came from. But it had magical powers. The dog was
named Barabbas. As the book ends, one of the Chilean women is rereading the
journals of her grandmother from long ago. The final words in the journal that
ended the book were: "Barabbas came to us by the sea."
When it is time for a headstone
for Alice, I want it to include the words: "Alice came to us by the
sea."
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