Foley's Tales from Rainbow Bridge: Riley and his Boy

Boy and his dog

Went out looking for the rainbow

You know what they learn

Since that very day

Walking by the river

And running like a blue streak

Through the fields of streams and meadows

Laughing all the way”

• Van Morrison's “Redwood Tree

 

Riley was born, like so many pups roaming the mortal side after I departed for the Bridge, so I only got to know him from my daily visits to Blogville, and the stories his sister and the Bridge, Xena, would relay to me on a cool night in the moonlight.

 

Riley never sought the limelight. He was content to let his sister Zena be the storyteller in the family All Riley needed was the love of his family.

 

And one in particular, his boy Andrew.

 

I write a lot about the relationships between dogs and their parents, particularly their moms. The relationship is the second purist pet-human relationship in the world.

 

But the purist relationship is between a boy and his dog.

 

Dogs are a boy’s best friend, and every day together is an adventure. Boys have things they don’t want to share with anyone else, things that could cause them to be ridiculed, fears that cannot speak, except for one, his dog, because their ears are meant for listening and their eyes for understanding. 

 

They were puppies together, learning about the world simultaneously: How far they could go, how much they could take. Some things went very wrong, and they kept that secret, one of several from the parents.

 

These are the most glorious days of a dog’s life, but they can tell that the boy is changing, getting bigger, smelling like an adult, and the long summer days full of foolish days are becoming as precious as the last burst of light when the sun is setting, and soon night will come.

 

Before the day comes, when the child becomes a man, he takes a part of his boyhood and gives it to the dog, so, when they are together, even if the kid is now a father, he can be a boy again.

 

Often the boy leaves the house because that is what boys do when they reach a certain age, and the dog slows down and begins his transition to the Bridge because that is what dogs of a certain age do.

 

When the dog is ready to depart, the boy comes back to his parent's house, and says goodbye, but he leaves that little bit of boyhood with

  the passing dog so it will have someone to play with while he is at the Bridge.

 

And that is why I saw Young Andrew running past me at the Bridge, through the fields and meadows, laughing all the way, because men will always be boys with the heart dog of their youth, and the dog will always be with the boy.