Boy's best friend ~ Dog mourns loss of owner, 15

[douglas9]

Since her best friend's death, Zelda has taken to wandering.

Neighbors spot the one-eyed, rust-colored dog roaming the farm roads near her home, heading in the direction of the cemetery.

That's where the dog was found recently, say animal officers, roving the grounds of a small brick church on Bremen Highway, yards from her owner's tombstone.

"She's without her boy," said mom Marci Reed. "She just sniffs all over looking for her boy."

Zelda and her owner, Joshua Reed, 15, were inseparable ever since Josh rescued the dog three years before, when she was hit by a car.

It had been nightfall when the family drove past the dog lying in the road and Josh had pointed frantically at the crumpled figure.

"He jumped out of the moving van," Marci Reed remembers during a recent visit to her home.

"He yelled, 'Stop! We have to get the dog!' " The teen brought the bleeding animal in the van, wrapping the dog in his jacket.

The child stayed up all night talking to the dog, his mom remembered with tears in her eyes. "He kept saying, 'I love you. I love you. You'll be all right, I'll take care of you.'"

Zelda lost an eye in the accident, and her tail was broken in several places, but the dog flourished at the Reed home.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20101121/News01/101129886/1011/News

[xchrom]

1. ...

:cry:

[lillypaddle]

3. Damn ... me, too

:cry:

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. me three

:cry:

[laylah]

2. That's a 3 tissue story...

reminds me, somewhat, of "Greyfriar's Bobby". :cry:

Jenn

[flvegan]

5. Ah, geez. I shouldn't have clicked on this.

[lildreamer316]

6. Me either.

Brokenhearted morning/afternoon. Gonna go back to the bad pun comic thread now..

[Skittles]

8. I hear you

:cry:

[kimi]

7. Ah, how heartbreaking

I hope so much that this family and Zelda find peace and comfort among each other.

[lunamagica]

9. That's so sad....reminds me a story I read when I was a child about a little boy

who rescued a dog. They became inseparable, but the child died when he was about ten. The doggie followed the casket to the cemetery and was present for the burial. he stayed bedside his beloved kid's grave for the rest of his life.

This happened in a small town in South America. Neighbors would feed the dog and give him water. The picture in the article was from when the dog had been sitting by the grave site for five years. He looked old, so sad. I'd look at the picture and cry, cry, cry....

[Swede]

10. Damn it.

[applegrove]

11. vibes.