Monday, September 17, 2012

Remembering Angus and the UPS man



Jan is away at Quilting with Machines this week, Tom went home to southwestern Ohio for his brother’s wedding, and took Euba with him; the girls and I are home alone.  Laura and Emily have a list of things to remember posted on the cupboard door.  Bring in the mail.  Lock the doors.  Emily eyed the list with suspicion last night.  No cooking.  Grandma has that covered; a nice family restaurant down the road.  They will be so pleased.

The UPS man brought a delivery today, and took a biscuit from his pocket for Euba.  She took it away without even saying Thank You.  He looked sadly at her and said he missed those other two.


Euba

It’s been a year since Angus left to join Fiona.  They always heard the UPS truck pull in.  Two little faces were in the window as he came up the sidewalk, up the ramp, and rang the doorbell.  As if he needed to do that.  The barking and the jumping for joy alerted the house. 

Two biscuits were in his shirt pocket.  One went first to Fiona, who went straight to her place and kept her biscuit between her feet until long after Angus finished his.  She tormented Angus exquisitely.    Angus’ biscuit was next.  The UPS man broke it in half and gave Angus one at a time cautioning “Chew it up, now.”  Of course Angus swallowed them whole.

When no one was home the package and two biscuits were left on the little table on the porch. Two Cairns met the rude persons who had not been there for the delivery and herded them to the front door, clamoring for the biscuits on the front porch.


Fiona

One day the UPS man pulled out one biscuit and looked around.  “Where’s the little one?”  Jan explained Fiona had run the last great run of her bad heart the previous Saturday, and laid down and died. 

The poor fellow said “Oh.”  Blankly he handed Angus the biscuit in his hand.  Angus dispatched it in one swallow.  The UPS man turned and went back down the ramp, slowly patting the other biscuit in his pocket.  Jan watched him go, with no words to say.  Angus went down the ramp with him, bouncing on his Tigger springs.  You have another biscuit.  I could eat two!  The UPS man was still patting his pocket when he got back to his truck.


Angus

19 comments:

  1. Beautiful dogs. I'm sure you miss your two that have gone on.

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  2. It's so sad when they have to leave us.

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  3. Lovely dogs.
    You must miss them so much.

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  4. Awwwww... what a sweet, sad story. Beautiful, Joanne. I copied and pasted your url and sent it around to all my co-workers. Angus is my son's name, by the way, (as you probably know)... so I'm particularly saddened by your tale.
    -Cathy from Muskoka

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  5. Wonderful story well told. I also feel for the ups man.

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  6. Our little furry companions steal our hearts and never let go.
    Jane x

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  7. Awwwwwww! So sad, and beautifully told. Can just imagine the postman patting his pocket and not knowing what to do. *sigh*

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  8. So sad!! Those are such darling pictures of them and I love that the postman kept back the other treat, sort of like a memorial.

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  9. Its very rare indeed for a delivery person or postman/woman to feed dogs biscuits while on his/her rounds.

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  10. And poor Jeb, the Orkin guy. He was bent over Angus patting him asking where the other one was and I had to say she had passed on. He never looked up, kept patting Angus as huge tears fell to the floor at Angus' feet. I almost started crying over that. I am so amazed that two little dogs could touch the hearts of so many people and they rarely left the house!

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  11. What a heart-wrenching story.

    My carriers for the USPS before I retired(and they still carry them) carried dog biscuits, too. They have a pair of peacocks that know the mail truck's sound and come to get their biscuits.

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  12. What beautiful little dogs they were and what a kind UPS man to always have a few biscuits in his pocket.

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  13. Your UPS deliveries are much more interesting than mine. I don't think we get the same person twice.

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  14. oh such a beautiful story and a wonderful ups person.

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  15. Sweet story and how nice of the ups man to carry biscuits.

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  16. Sweet story. Funny how those furry little ones steal hearts.

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  17. What sweet faces. Another well-told story, and tears in my eyes.

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  18. Oh, what a tender, beautiful story! I love dogs. And Cairns are so adorable! So much personality! I love your UPS man. He sounds like one in a million!

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