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Zeke, 1991(?)-2/3/2007
Posted by: Chris Clarke
Note: A database glitch in 2008 ate a bunch of archived comments. Don't be offended if yours isn't here, or confused if the conversation seems disjointed. Thanks!
Bye Zekey. I Love You. Grandma
By: By Rita Xavier on 2007 02 03
What a beauty. Rest in peace, Zeke.
By: By embee on 2007 02 03
ah, well. he had a good run, didn’t he?
By: By miguel alondra on 2007 02 03
Goodbye, Zeke. You will be remembered and loved always.
By: By JeffL on 2007 02 03
Beautiful tribute picture, Chris.
It’s raining here for the first time in 2 weeks. Coincidence? I think not.
Peace to you and Becky.
By: By kabbage on 2007 02 03
Dog Death Tanka (for Zeke, Chris & Becky)
Hold breath in love pain.
Grey dog, going to forest.
DOG is light! More light!
Breathe out, relief. Dog gone dark.
Gone back to whole wide light world.
Sending Love, B. Dagger Lee
By: By bdaggerlee on 2007 02 03
My deepest sympathy.
By: By winna on 2007 02 03
What do we say when there are no words and words are all we have?
I believe we don’t end, that the spirit has weight. That we are more. That those who pass merely shed old shells and move on. That they are whole once again and near.
By: By Lesley on 2007 02 03
Goodbye, Zeke. We send our love wherever you may go.
By: By Sylvia on 2007 02 03
Bye, sweet puppy. I’m glad I had the pleasure of meeting you.
By: By Space Kitty on 2007 02 03
I’m terribly sorry to hear this, Chris. All my best wishes to you and Becky.
By: By Heraclitus on 2007 02 03
I’m so sorry. He’s resting now. And I hope you guys will be able to also. What a great happy photo. Perfect choice.
By: By leslee on 2007 02 03
Best. Dog. Ever.
Good night, Zeke.
By: By the_bone on 2007 02 03
Words fail…. how I hate having to finally face saying goodbye to Zeke. My heart breaks knowing what you two are going through and I can only wish you peace in time from knowing that you did right by him from the first moment to the last, that you were the ones who rescued him and gave him the freedom and love that allowed him to be the incredible dog he was meant to be.
By: By Natalie on 2007 02 03
What can you say when someone who’s lost their best friend?
I’m so sorry.
By: By blondie on 2007 02 03
My deepest condolences. Somehow he blessed us all.
By: By Sheila on 2007 02 03
{{{hugs}}}
Deepest condolences, Chris. Thank you for sharing him with us.
By: By Elayne Riggs on 2007 02 03
I am very sorry. He was, and will continue to be, a very good and much loved dog.
My best to you and Becky.
By: By Nanette on 2007 02 03
Ah, Zeke. Rest you gentle; sleep you sound.
By: By CaseyL on 2007 02 03
I’m so sorry for your loss. From your posts, I can see that Zeke was a very special dog.
By: By debbie on 2007 02 03
That’s a picture of a happy dog.
bye Zeke.
By: By Renee Perry on 2007 02 03
Dear Chris and Becky,
Please accept our deepest and most heartfelt condolences. You are in our hearts this weekend. Please, take care. And thank you, again and again, for sharing your friendship with Zeke with us.
By: By Charles on 2007 02 03
ps: I love the picture.
By: By Charles on 2007 02 03
I’ve cried about this often, and I’ll continue doing so each time I read a bit of what you’ve written or see a photo like that one.
At least he’s not suffering, Chris. All he knows now is peace.
I hope you and Becky take the time needed to weep—truly weep—and mourn your loss while not forgetting to celebrate Zeke’s life. He’d want it no other way.
Please know my heart and thoughts are with you both.
By: By jason on 2007 02 03
He loved and was loved. He enriched your life and you enriched his.
He was a good dog and he had a good life.
This may be cold comfort now, but it will comfort you in the years to come.
Bye Zeke. I feel like I know you.
By: By Graham on 2007 02 03
...Great heart,
great human heart, keep loving me as you lift me,
give me your tears, great loving stranger, remember
the death of dogs…
How could there be enough? I have given
my life for this, emotion has ruined me, oh lover,
I have exchanged my wildness—little tricks
with the mouth and feet, with the tail, my tongue is a parrot’s,
I am a rampant horse, I am a lion,
I wait for the cookie, I snap my teeth—
as you have taught me, oh distant and brilliant and lonely.
—Gerald Stern
I’m so sorry.
By: By Maud on 2007 02 03
Bye Zeke.
By: By Nikki on 2007 02 03
I’m so very sorry. Thanks for sharing Zeke with us in all those posts.
By: By Paguroidea on 2007 02 03
Jeff and I made a donation today in Zeke’s memory at the Berkeley Humane Society in hopes of helping other dogs find as wonderful a home as Zeke did. Our pup is a shelter rescue as well and we cannot thank the shelter who took him in enough for saving his life and granting his care to us.
By: By Natalie on 2007 02 03
Happy trails, Zeke.
By: By stinger on 2007 02 03
portrait of zeke, as a young dog.
my dad’s voice still pops into my head sometimes. he says, “zeke. he was a helluva dog. just a helluva dog.”
By: By kathy a on 2007 02 03
:(
I’m rather poor at condolences, but have mine anyway. x.x
By: By Azkyroth on 2007 02 03
We had one short meeting, Zeke and I, and I only got to give one brief hug to his bony ribs – not on one of his better days – but I’ll still miss your beloved old Beast, whom I’ve grown to love through your words.
We all have to go through these things. But some of us have to tell the stories too, and I realized lately that ... focused as we are on finding the words and interpreting the meaning of the event, delving into the depths of it, it becomes much, much harder. I think the eventual healing, the growth and the learning that comes from it, is greater. But in the moment, it’s very hard.
Chris, the Zeke story you’ve told us over the past several years, and the beauty with which you’ve told it – well, I think there are few of us who could bear up under it.
I will always admire you for your strength, and the rare beauty of who you are. I think of the state of the world today, the way we so stupidly often make heroes of soldiers and cops, the heroes of force and violence and death, and the counterpoint of your example – a hero of tireless love and caring – is huge and poignant.
I can only wish there might be more like you in the world. Maybe ... by being you, and being here, you help make that happen.
Zeke could have no better memorial than that he caused caring to take root in the world, and flower into love.
By: By Hank Fox on 2007 02 03
I’m so sorry. What a good dog, what good friends he had to care so much for and about him. That kind of love goes on.
By: By dragonet2 on 2007 02 03
Much love to you and Becky—three generations of the Newman family have been following Zeke’s story. Knowing something’s going to happen doesn’t make it one bi easier when it finally does, does it?
I’m so sorry.
By: By RedMolly on 2007 02 03
Our sympathy and caring for you. Goodbye sweet old darling Zeke. Great photo for his last tribute.
By: By Linda on 2007 02 03
[[hug]]
By: By Barry Leiba on 2007 02 03
ODDJOB, A BULL TERRIER
You prepare for one sorrow,
but another comes.
It is not like the weather,
you cannot brace yourself,
the unreadiness is all.
Your companion, the woman,
the friend next to you,
the child at your side,
and the dog,
we tremble for them,
we look seaward and muse
it will rain.
We shall get ready for rain;
you do not connect
the sunlight altering
the darkening oleanders
in the sea-garden,
the gold going out of the palms.
You do not connect this,
the fleck of the drizzle
on your flesh,
with the dog’s whimper,
the thunder doesn’t frighten,
the readiness is all;
what follows at your feet
is trying to tell you
the silence is all:
it is deeper than the readiness,
it is sea-deep,
earth-deep,
love-deep.
The silence
is stronger than thunder,
we are stricken dumb and deep
as the animals who never utter love
as we do, except
it becomes unutterable
and must be said,
in a whimper,
in tears,
in the drizzle that comes to our eyes
not uttering the loved thing’s name,
the silence of the dead,
the silence of the deepest buried love is
the one silence,
and whether we bear it for beast,
for child, for woman, or friend,
it is the one love, it is the same,
and it is blest
deepest by loss
it is blest, it is blest.
Derek Walcott
By: By JohnM on 2007 02 03
Good, good dog
Well loved, loving in return
Running forever, tongue lolling
Tail wagging.
Forever happy.
Peace to you.
By: By boltgirl on 2007 02 03
The lifespan of dogs, one of God’s bigger mistakes. Your pain is over now, Zeke, bit the love lives on.
By: By CJColucci on 2007 02 03
Chris and Becky, I’m so sorry to hear the news.
Thank you for sharing your and Zeke’s story with all of us. I wish there were something I could say or do to help.
By: By RavenT on 2007 02 03
best dog.
By: By craig on 2007 02 03
Hank Fox said it all. Thanks for sharing your experience with the rest of us, Chris. You are a rare human being.
By: By Trinifar on 2007 02 03
Chris,
I’m so sorry. What a great picture of Zeke!
Take good care of yourself and Becky. I’m thinking of you.
By: By Cathy on 2007 02 03
Gentle journey Zeke.
By: By Laura on 2007 02 03
We are so, so sorry Chris & Becky. Zeke will always be a helluva dog. We are so lucky to have met him even one time.
All our love and wishes for peace to you both.
Jane & Nadine
By: By Jane on 2007 02 03
Sorry. My cat, Wacky, is just about ready for the “long sleep” also. After 20 years , it’s hard to say goodbye.
By: By Bob C on 2007 02 03
Bye, Zekey. We love you.
Hugs for Chris and Becky.
By: By Coral on 2007 02 03
“Well Zeke, I guess we found out where your stick got to.�
So Sorry for your loss Chris & Becky - what can be said except that this is the time in pet ownership that sucks, the dark flipside of the joy that you felt when you first got Zeke.
If only they could stay healthy & 2 years old forever!
My condolences
By: By Chromosome Crawl on 2007 02 03
Blessed be the dogs and the people who love them.
By: By treepeony on 2007 02 03
Oh, Zeke, you gorgeous boy, rest in peace. Chris, Becky, I am so so sorry.
By: By Kate Smith on 2007 02 03
I’m sorry, Chris. Best to you and yours.
By: By Scott Eric Kaufman on 2007 02 03
I’m sorry for your loss, Chris. His was a beautiful spirit.
By: By steven on 2007 02 03
Deepest sympathy, Chris.
I just closed the cover, finishing Susan Jacoby’s Freethinkers, which ends with the eulogy that Robert Ingersoll gave for Walt Whitman, and opened my computer to learn this sad news. What a strange and melancholy moment. But somehow though I only met Zeke through your photos and writing, it seems to fit.
By: By decrepitoldfool on 2007 02 03
Thank you so much for sharing Zeke with us.
By: By Sherwood Harrington on 2007 02 03
Sorry, Chris. As you know, I just went through this a few weeks ago. It’s not much fun.
By: By Mike Peterson on 2007 02 03
Goodbye, sweet dog. Condolences to you, Chris.
By: By John H. on 2007 02 04
*hug*
Everyone who has owned a pup is crying for you now.
By: By Abbie on 2007 02 04
I’m sitting in front of my computer, reading about Zeke, hearing tears drip on my shirt.
I’m so very sorry for your loss.
By: By Cat on 2007 02 04
Chris, I am so sorry for your loss. I’m not a regular reader of Creek Running North, though that’s only because your stories of Zeke were just too beautiful to bear. Happy or sad, they always brought a tear. I wish you and your wife well. Your love for him is overwhelming, and it’s clear that you and Becky gave him a wonderful, happy life. Rest in peace, Zeke.
By: By kelly g. on 2007 02 04
If only we all could have lived like Zeke…
Three cheers for a good dog.
By: By The Rev. Jenner J. Hull on 2007 02 04
Rest in peace, Zeke.
By: By Amanda Marcotte on 2007 02 04
I’m so sorry for your loss.
May he walk in joy in the Isle of Apples;
May he find peace in the Summerland.
By: By Xopher on 2007 02 04
Chris, It’s a cold, crisp, sunny day in Kentucky with a couple of inches of fresh snow last night. A good day for a hike with our dogs, Tucker and Niki, up to the rockcastles in the hills behind our house. You and Becky and Zeke were with us.
By: By CharlieC on 2007 02 04
I’m a reader of your blog who has never met you, and I never got to meet Zeke, but thanks to your writing I was able to know him a bit. Zeke was and will always be a good dog.
We are all, both human and animal, largely defined by the lives we impact and the memories we leave with our passing. You made Zeke’s life so much fuller. Through your stories, your life and his have impacted mine. You are a good human.
I am so sorry for your loss.
By: By Cascadian on 2007 02 04
What a beautiful dog.
Rest in peace, Zeke.
By: By sabotabby on 2007 02 04
Chris, Thanks for sharing Zeke with us.
Best wishes to you and Becky.
By: By MikeG on 2007 02 04
So sorry, Chris. Cheers to Zeke and his long, full life and the people whose lives he touched.
By: By norbizness on 2007 02 04
Just thinking of you folks and the Zeke tonight. I hope you’re holding up.
By: By Lesley on 2007 02 04
I lost my poor old border collie about two years ago. He was eighteen. There’s no forgetting.
By: By R.H. on 2007 02 05
Chris and Becky,
Our condolences and sympathy again from up here. As I’ve been following CRN for the last coupleof weeks, snippets of the last month of Buck’s life, when the finiteness of his days was within our sight, have come back to my mind.
While Buck wasn’t always very social with his peers, I like to believe that he’s made some progress in the fifteen years years since he went off to the Dog Star. May he and Zeke find one antoher there, good dogs that they have been.
By: By ALotOfCatsAroundHere on 2007 02 05
These two short compositions by one of my favorite Zen teachers have been a great comfort to me. May they comfort you at least as much.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/113/story_11310.html
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/113/story_11309.html
For you, Becky, and Zeke:
May you always be safe.
May you always be healthy.
May you always be happy.
May you always be prosperous.
May you always live with ease and be at peace.
Metta.
By: By Steve on 2007 02 05
My condoleances.
I hope in time the memories you’ll have of your time together will soften the pain of his loss.
By: By Martin Wisse on 2007 02 05
Farewell, noble spirit.
By: By Rob G on 2007 02 05
Thanks for everything you’ve written here about Zeke, Chris. It was quite wonderful, as indeed was he. My condolences and best wishes.
By: By RobW on 2007 02 05
Holding you in the Light during this time of need…
By: By Shelley on 2007 02 05
Godspeed. Good wishes to Zeke, a good dog, and to you all.
By: By emily on 2007 02 05
Dear Chris,
With much love, I cried each time I checked in to hear an update on Zeke. I cried with happiness with each post that let me know he was still with you, and I cried as much with the knowledge that the end of his many, many love-filled years was coming into focus. Now I cry for you and Becky. While I want to be one of those scores of great folks who say “My condolences” or “Thinking of you,” I somehow feel compelled to add something else.
First, I realized that all of my comments to date have said “and Becky” as though she was a polite afterthought. I have been where you are, and I have been where Becky is. From what you have shared, it sounds as though Becky has been a rock through these times, bolstering support for you as you did the same for Zeke. My own experiences tell me that she has watched vigilantly as she lost not only Zeke, but also a part of you - her own partner. Your own grief and pain is obvious through your writing, and yet I know there is a beautiful soul who has been standing by you through this and hurting, not just for Zeke, but for you as well. Please give her a hug for me and let her know that us in the blogosphere, though distant, do so appreciate her love and support of both Zeke AND you.
Also, I want to echo what others have said here and there: with time, the good memories will rise to the top and the harder ones will slowly sink and fade. There is no forgetting, but everything comes in balance. I’m glad you were able to have so many wonderful memories of Zeke, and he of you.
Peace and Love,
-A-
By: By Amanda on 2007 02 05
He looks so happy.
Thank you for sharing him with us.
By: By ronniecat on 2007 02 05
Goodbye Zeke… you will be missed.
By: By Stuart V on 2007 02 05
Chris and Becky - long time lurker who is so sad for you both today. You had a wonderful companion, friend, family member share your life with you and he obviously loved you as much as he was loved by you. How lucky you all were to find each other!
Zeke lives on not only in your hearts and minds, but with the rest of us who have been privileged to peek in on your times together via your writings. Thank you for sharing him with us.
My thoughts are with you, Becky and Zeke today.
By: By Cyndy on 2007 02 05
Chris, I’m so sorry. I know it was time, but it’s still hard. Zeke sounded like a great dog.
You are all in my thoughts today.
By: By Sheelzebub on 2007 02 05
Chris, my deepest condolences.
Best wishes to you and your family.
By: By kevin Andre Elliott on 2007 02 05
From Carl Dog’s (1/2 Newfoundland & 1/2 Australian Shepherd; turns 17 Valentines Day 2007) human to Zeke Dog’s humans:
Your grief will subside and be replaced with stories that make you laugh out loud and your heart sing. When you’re ready, read MARLEY & ME by John Grogan.
By: By Patty on 2007 02 05
Wow, Amanda, your comment in #103 was beautifully written. I hope it’s OK if I “me too” what you said.
By: By Charles on 2007 02 05
Here via Robin Andrea and Roger. Peace to you.
By: By yankee,transferred on 2007 02 05
I’m so sorry, Chris. I hope you’ll take some comfort in knowing you gave Zeke a good life and the kind of love that all creatures deserve.
. . . jim strain in san diego.
By: By Jim Strain on 2007 02 05
I’m so sorry, Chris. You were a wonderful friend to Zeke, I’ve no doubt, and he, you.
rest in peace, good soul.
By: By belledame222 on 2007 02 05
So sorry. Your updates on Zeke have been very touching.
By: By Grimmstail on 2007 02 05
Chris,
I’m just a lowly lurker who checks your blog from time to time usually for news about Zeke. I’m so sorry to hear he’s passed away. My deepest sympathy to you and Becky.
By: By Pygmy Loris on 2007 02 05
I am so sorry for your loss.
By: By Bill Hooker on 2007 02 05
Dear Chris,
I write once again as your family crosses my mind. I wonder whether you have read all the comments here. I would understand if you felt it wasn’t yet time, or if it was in fact not bearable at this point. All the same, I hope that each and every one of these thoughts that are sent your way are enveloping you with the spirit, the good vibes, and the love with which they were written.
What wouldn’t I give to be as lucky as Zeke to have been adopted into such a loving home? And I would perhaps give even more to be blessed by the love of Zeke in my life.
All my love to Becky and to you, from 2,700 miles away. I hope you two are hanging on tightly to each other with one hand as the other grasps those roller coaster bars.
Love and Peace,
-A-
By: By Amanda on 2007 02 05
Oh Chris….I just saw this a moment ago.
I have a much loved dog who’s in serious decline right now, so I have some sense of what this must feel like.
My thoughts are with you!
By: By Ben Alpers on 2007 02 08
Categories:
Zeke
