Missing My Old Dog Benny

Today as I sat in the backyard blogging and smoking my pipe, I noticed that our persimmon tree is loaded with nearly ripe fruit.  It made me think of my beige Cocker Spaniel, Benny, who died a year ago last August.  He used to go after the low-hanging fruit and bite into it.  That old dog was always hungry.  It would be night and I would hear someone picking fruit off the tree.  I checked and found Benny munching a persimmon.  He loved them.

I wasn't so sure they were good for him though, and Mrs. Chomper picked off all the low-hanging fruit so he couldn't eat any more.  The next night Benny ran over to the tree and couldn't find any fruit in biting range.  So he started crying, Ah-wooo!  Ah-wooo!  This pained my heart something fierce so I picked one and gave it to him.  Mrs. Chomper didn't have to know.

Seeing the new crop of fruit today really reminded me of him.  What good is a tree full of persimmons if there is no Benny to bite them?