Hawk
We had fifteen years with our crazy Hawk. He could make us laugh so hard we were crying one minute and in the next you wanted to strangle him for his stubbornness and bad habits. But he was great company and a good friend to us all. Pure white with a mane of which he was so very proud, a wide handsome face, a loving and very caring personality he was an exceptional soul.
As an example I share the story of his time as a Nanny. We had rescued some baby rabbits one day and brought them home. We had a good hutch outside for them to live in, but they came into the house to visit with us as well. When we first brought them home, we kept them in the house for most of the day because they had been quite frightened and we wanted to win their trust. Hawk would round them up and keep them under the dining room table where he could keep a close eye on them. He slept with them and groomed them, becoming their guardian and protector. It was beautiful.
When they were outside hopping around the yard and he sensed danger, such as a hawk circling overhead or a dog running loose, he would chase the rabbits around the yard until they finally jumped into the safety of their cage. Only then would he rest, usually right outside the cage to make sure nothing got too close.
We also received an orphaned cat which obviously had a rather difficult life. An acquaintance brought her to us as Patrick had seen her and realized that she was in need of a good home. He told this friend if he could ever catch her to bring her to our home and we would help her. So one Sunday evening this man knocked on our door and presented us with Tiffany, a beautiful soul who also became one of our great friends and companions. She was obviously leery of all of us, but especially of Hawk, basically living wild as she had.
But Hawk would not have that, insisting that she accept him as a friend. It cost him more than one swipe of her claws across the nose when he tried to give her a kiss. You had to admire his adamant determination which did pay off in the end. They became great friends once he had won her affection. They often slept together and as long as he left her catnip alone, she would allow him to stay close by.
There are so many stories I could tell about this beautiful animal, but that would be a book in itself. Although most of those stories are funny and comforting, there are as I said some that were not.
He had a very bad habit of rolling in bear scat or another dogs poop, often when we were on an outing with no way to clean him off until we got home. A very smelly ride home with the windows rolled down and much complaining from the back seat was unavoidable. He considered himself larger than life and able to take on any creature large or small. Once he decided to go after something, his ears turned off and we would have a devil of a time catching up with him to bring him back. Life’s embarrassing moments with Hawk.
Then there were the times when the truck was loaded up with containers, groceries or something fragile that we would do our best to barricade him from. Always we would ensure he had a comfortable bed in the back, but if he realized you did not want him to go somewhere in the truck, the moment you closed the door and walked to the front, he was on top of whatever you were trying to protect. He always knew when he was in trouble because his ears would go back and his eyes would become slits as he shrunk back into himself.
Truly, it was amazing he lived to a ripe age for all the times he would leap without thought. One time he ran straight into a boulder hidden under the snow while he was chasing a raven through the trees. Slam! hitting the rock full on with his chest. He fell back, rolled over and carried on as if nothing happened. It must have hurt, but his anger at the raven was more important than being hurt. What’s so funny about that is Hawk would never have been able to hurt the raven had he managed to catch it. He did not have a mean bone in his body, he was just determined to speak his mind….and be taken seriously.
This attitude came from mornings when the ravens or crows would steal from his food dish while we were camping, his dish having been left outside and hawk locked in the box of the truck. No one took food from Hawk! As the metal food dish tinkled with such bold thievery Hawk tried unsuccessfully to get through the window, desperate to protect his food. Forever after he would give those big black birds a piece of his mind whenever one flew nearby. Lucas learned to perfectly mimic a raven call, often sending Hawk into a tizzy searching for that damned bird. He would tilt his head to the sky, running in ever larger circles barking his defiance and Lucas beside himself with laughter.
Oddly enough, one of his unique character traits imprinted onto us. Whenever we threw some food in the air Hawk would stand at attention waiting for it to drop to the ground, hang time irrelevant, then rushing over to consumer the morsel when it touched down. If he was begging during our supper while on the road we would often fake tossing food into the air at which point Hawk would dash a short distance away patiently staring into the sky for its return. Since his departure it is us who look off into the distance wondering if we will meet again in this life. He has never been forgotten.
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