Its not only humans who can become best friends for life or have the good luck to find life-long friends…animals can have too … This is a true story of two friends Oscar and Whisky who were best friends till the end.
The first time Oscar met Whisky was funny, till then our neighbours had no pets except for our right side neighbour who had a Pomeranian which didn’t interest Oscar too much as he was
mostly indoors and was not the friendly type… so when Oscar heard a new bark one day he was surprised, I remember him tilting his ears all alert to hear the bark again, it wasn’t the pomerian barking but seemed like a bark of a big dog like him. Since he was tied he couldn’t explore and investigate where the sound was coming.
In the evening, we suddenly heard loud barking across the fence and we rushed to see what the commotion was thinking it could be monkeys or snake or someone jumping over the gate. On reaching the fence I saw the most handsome German Shepherd barking furiously and Oscar the pointer replying with equal fervour. Somehow we managed to control both of them and that was my first introduction to Whisky and his owner Tanya. It was a task to control them as they just refused to stay still running from one end of the fence to the other chasing each other and we were just hoping and praying that they don’t bring the fence down.
I think it was an instant contact and friendship between these two and both Tanya and me felt they had their own way of communicating with each other and in many ways I felt they conversed and understood each other better than us humans. They would wait patiently for either one of them to appear and then the chase would begin and when tired would sit across the fence and stare at each other. I remember how Whisky would smell me all over when I visited him and Oscar would pretend he was angry with me when he would smell Whisky on me.
It was a beautiful friendship and the were jealous if either Tanya and me played and patted and showered love vice versa. Their lovely friendship lasted for I think 5-8 years and one day Oscar who was much older nearing 14 fell sick and had jaundice and we took him to the vet and I remember Whisky sitting near the fence watching us carry Oscar to the car and drive off…he was silent no bark as if he knew he would not see his friend again.
Unfortunately, we lost Oscar that day and we brought him back home and buried him in the garden near the fence and Whisky stood by silently watching us bury his dear friend..
That evening when I went to see Whisky he was not his usual chirpy self , he guess what had happened and when I hugged him and cried for Oscar I felt him tongue licking my face as if telling me I miss him too … you are not alone I am there for you. He put his head on my lap and comforted me .Even after all these years we still remember these two friends and talk about them ..such friendships and bonding are rare and happen once I a blue moon. I am sure they both must be running free across the rainbow ….