Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It has real meaning as a time to reflect on what we are greatful for.

For 14 years I shared my life with this little man who I always felt loved me dearly even though he was not super affectionate to others. He loved dogs and he loved me and that was all that ever mattered. I think he liked my husband but he liked women more than men in general.

It’s over a year now that he has crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to be with Bailey our former Border Collie. He also lived with Joy and now Joy has Sabie, who looks alot like Safari when he was a baby, but wth a different personality.

My friend and I talk about how we have more empathy for animals than humans and I do not think I find anything harder than losing a fur child. You want them to be with you forever. No matter how many years you spend together it is never enough. I feel that way about all the fur babies that I have shared life with but some a little more than others and this guy was one of those special ones.

For the winter I am in the home where he is buried. Flowers surround him and birds sing over his special place in the yard. Sabie, his youthful look alike, sits in the mulch there looking for salamanders just like Safari used to do.

I am grateful to have shared all those years with Safari, my little man who worked next to me everyday in three different states and loved me with his whole heart and I did the same.