To all the Dog Lovers out there!

THE LOVE OF JASPER
(Written and Submitted in a Contest March 24, 2005)

One day I awoke thinking..."It’d be nice to have a dog. The kind of dog that is not too big that it will topple over Cetty, our 2 year old, yet not so small that she’d smoosh it. We settled on finding a Cocker Spaniel, just like Lady in "Lady and the Tramp." If a Cocker Spaniel was good enough for Disney it must be good enough for our 6 children. The children were tired and hungry after searching the city for the "perfect" dog. The dogs were either too old, blind, or not brown like "Lady." Then we found him. Jasper was about 2 years old. His shots were up to date, was potty trained, and loved children. The children fell in love and the price was right! Free (dog food not included.) Jasper and Cetty became the best of friends being unseparateable. At night Jasper insisted on sleeping beside Cetty’s bed, and we would often find Cetty curled up beside Jasper, on the floor, her favorite blanket over the both of them. Tea parties included tea, with a dog treat for Jasper and cookies for Cetty. Walks were interesting too. Jasper would stand between anyone that approached Cetty giving a look that said "You are plenty close...Back off! At times the connection that Cetty and Jasper shared would get frustrating. We continually explain to Cetty that a dog doesn’t eat at the table, finally buying a doggy table so Jasper could join us. Other times, we attempted to go on vacation, but Cetty would not be consoled until Jasper was with us. Jasper was family, that is all there is to it. The day finally came when Jasper’s true love for Cetty was manefested to us. Just arriving at The Marriot Inn, our children informed us that the first item on their agenda was to go swimming. The 5 older children knew how to swim and there was an actual lifeguard on duty. I hurried them off so I could unpack. (The front desk clerk had given us permission to let Jasper room with us on the condition that he not enter the pool-room.) Back to unpacking, I did not realize that Cetty and Jasper had left too. In a panic my husband and I hollered for the children to come help us find Cetty. We searched everywhere to no avail. One last attempt led us back to the pool-room just in time to see Jasper successfully pulling Cetty to safety from the pool. Cetty was holding on frantically to Jasper apparently pushing him under the water most of the time, but he managed to get her to safety. In his efforts to save our Cetty, Jasper had breathed in too much water and died within minutes of rescuing our girl. No one would have imagined that the love of these two, Cetty and Jasper, would result in the safety of one and the death of the other. Jasper our hero will forever be in our hearts! A Fictional Story by, C. J. Wilkes