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Highlands Today

Kids' Understanding Of Life And Death

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By Raleigh Whiteman | Highlands Today

Published: February 21, 2008

A veterinarian had been called to examine a 10-year-old Irish wolfhound named Belker.

The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

Belker was examined and found he was dying of cancer. The family was told by the vet that nothing could save Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As they made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told the vet they thought it would be good for 6-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, everyone wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. They all sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why."

Startled, all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned them. They had never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life, like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?"

The 6-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

Never Question A Drunk

She was shopping at the local supermarket where she selected:

A half-gallon of 2 percent milk, a carton of eggs, a quart of orange juice, a head of romaine lettuce, a two-pound can of coffee, and a one-pound package of bacon. As she was unloading the items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk standing behind her watched as the items were placed in front of the cashier.

While the cashier was ringing up the purchases, the drunk calmly stated, "You must be single."
The lady was a bit startled by this proclamation, but was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since she was indeed single.

Looking at the six items on the belt she saw nothing particularly unusual about the selections that could have tipped off the drunk to her marital status.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she asked, "Well, you know what, you're absolutely right. But how on earth did you know that?"

The drunk replied, "Cause you're ugly."

Weather Cycles

Already the canal behind my home is so low boat owners with lifts cannot use their boats unless they removed the boat from the lift several months ago.

And still construction continues as 800 or more people a day move to Florida and those who have homes continue to water their lawns as if this drought will end next week.

I suggest a halt on sprinkling and a moratorium on approval of further construction and developments until our lakes have returned to their normal levels and we have some assurance this drought has ended.

I wrote the preceding seven years ago, in January 2001, about the lack of rain and low lake levels when we lived in Placid Lakes. Three years later when we built here in Sun 'N Lakes we were back to normal lake levels.

I sure hope history repeats itself, but without the hurricanes.

Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, is a contributing writer to Highlands Today. You can reach him on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net.

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