Precious Teacher

by Dean Kramer
October, 2005

(I usually write about my life with MS, but this month I’m offering something a little different. I’m calling it a children’s story for adults but it’s as true an essay as I’ve ever written. It might seem a little saccharine, but the experience had some dark and difficult lessons for me. I’m grateful for the chance to go on learning them.)

A little white dog lived with her human in a small house in the woods. The little white dog came there as a puppy. The human, a woman, wanted a dog to be her friend and companion in all things.

The little white dog was given the name Griffin because the sound of it was quick and playful with shaggy “f”s, and it made a “grrr” sound, just like the little white dog did. A name can remind you of who you are. The best names do that.

Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we meet beings that become our teachers. We develop strong bonds with them. They can be real teachers, like in school, or best friends, or other humans we admire and come to know well. Some teachers aren’t even people. A dog can be a teacher if, with that dog, you learn to be a better human. When a bond is especially deep we can choose to honor that being with a title used by Buddhist monks—Precious Teacher.

The woman became Griffin’s Precious Teacher because she showed Griffin a way to live among humans. The first things Griffin learned were to wait patiently in her crate, to go potty only outside, and to chew only the things which were hers. The woman made sure Griffin had many things which were hers to chew!

Griffin became the woman’s Precious Teacher, too, showing her how to live among dogs. She taught the woman to get up early in the morning and go outside, to laugh more, and to make up silly songs about little white dogs. She also taught the woman to do the same thing the same way each time because that is what dogs prefer.

Once Griffin and the woman had taught each other how to get along at home, they went to school together. The school was called Dog Obedience Class, but it was really People Obedience Class as well. There they learned know each other better and to get along with all types of people and dogs in all sorts of situations. They learned to dance together.

They entered contests as a team and won prizes by passing tests. The judges were impressed that Griffin and the woman understood each other well and worked together beautifully on their tests. After each hard day of competition the woman took Griffin out for a celebration dinner. They ate the same thing each time in the same place because that is what dogs prefer.

What did Griffin do all day while the woman was at work? Well, Griffin went to work, too. The woman drove a delivery car for a boss who loved the little white dog, so Griffin rode with the woman on deliveries each day. At first she had to stay in the car while the woman made the deliveries, but one day while the woman stood talking with a customer….

“Honk! Honk!” The two humans looked at each other. Who was honking the car’s horn? It was Griffin! She’d learned to stand on her hind legs and bounce her front paws against the horn. “Honk! Honk!”

“Come-on!” she was saying, “I’m bored out here. Let’s get going!”

The woman began taking Griffin into the customers’ offices with her and, because Griffin was so well behaved, she was always welcomed.

Many years passed and the woman became sick. Her sickness made it hard for her to walk. Sometimes she even fell down. One day she and Griffin went for a hike with some dogs and some human friends. The dogs were all running together. The humans were all talking and laughing. The woman got more and more tired. She fell further and further behind. Finally she stood alone in the woods. She couldn’t walk anymore and there was no one to help her.

Soon, Griffin came and found her, but Griffin was just a little white dog. She couldn’t help the woman out of the woods. Suddenly Griffin ran away. “Oh, no!” the woman thought, “Even Griffin has left me here.” The woman hadn’t yet learned all that her Precious Teacher had in store. She hadn’t learned to trust her dog.

For Griffin hadn’t run away. Instead, she’d run to the woman’s human friends and barked and barked until they paid attention to her. Then she trotted back to the woman, leading the other humans to the rescue.

After that day Griffin and the woman found an agency that specialized in showing dogs how to help humans who are sick or disabled. Griffin already knew how to help, but the agency gave Griffin and the woman a test to prove Griffin’s skill. Then Griffin got to wear a badge and a special harness. Her skills entitled her to go anywhere the woman went; movies, restaurants, and shopping—you name it, Griffin went!

More time passed and Griffin began to get old. Her bones ached and her sight grew dim. She couldn’t jump in and out of the car anymore. Now the woman helped Griffin the way Griffin had helped her. Soon, though, Griffin didn’t want to go out at all. The light hurt he eyes. The woman had to go out alone while Griffin stayed home on a warm bed.

The woman met a new friend who had two big, bouncy dogs. They came to live in the small house in the woods and they made Griffin growl. That new human and those dogs didn’t know Griffin as Precious Teacher. They only knew her as Old Grouch. The woman couldn’t convince them to respect and honor Griffin as a teacher should be honored. They took Griffin’s place on the sofa. They demanded to be fed first. The woman protected Griffin as best she could, giving her a safe place to sleep and special food treats but Griffin, now a very old dog, was sad.

As the months went by, the pain in Griffin’s old bones grew worse, she began to lose her hearing, and she was almost blind. Soon she didn’t get up when the woman came home. One December, when she was 16 yeears old, Griffin began standing with her head down staring into dark corners. She was teaching the woman to say “goodbye” to her Precious Teacher. On the longest night of the year the woman took Griffin out to dinner for the last time.

The next morning she kissed Griffin and held her while a kind veterinarian gave Griffin some medicine that gently stilled her heart. Griffin lay in the woman’s arms with her head facing north and, just as her heart stopped beating, the wind chimes outside the door sounded once, though there was no wind on that cold December morning.

After Griffin was gone, the woman was sad for a very long time. She didn’t want another pet just to have a pet. She felt she had neglected her Precious Teacher in old age, by spending most of her time with the new friend and the 2 big bouncy dogs. The woman wished she might have a chance to do a better job. She searched for echoes of Griffin, believing that a strong and wholesome spirit could come to dwell in another being. She knew there are some bonds that do not break. She kept looking at little white dogs, but none of them had Griffin’s spirit. After a while she’d almost given up on ever finding her Precious Teacher again.

Many months after Griffin’s death there was a terrible storm. The storm was far away from the woman’s house, but it was a very bad storm. Many people lost their homes and their dogs needed to go to dog shelters. Soon the dog shelters were filling up. There wasn’t enough room for all the homeless dogs.

The woman wanted to help somehow. She read that if people adopted dogs from local shelters there would be spaces to place homeless dogs from the storm. With her computer, the woman began searching the dog shelters for a dog to adopt.

One day she saw a picture on a web site. It was a small dog, a puppy. She could see from his smile and the twinkle in his eyes that his spirit was the same as Griffin’s. When she read what the shelter’s humans wrote about him, she began to think maybe she had found her Precious Teacher again.

Like Griffin, he was a little white dog. He was living in the north, the direction Griffin had been facing when she let her spirit go. He was born in the same December that Griffin’s soul went looking for a new home. The shelter people even wrote that this puppy “needed a teacher.” The woman sent in an application saying why she thought her home would be the best place for him.

Soon after that, she went to meet him. The moment she saw him she knew she had found Griffin’s spirit in its new home. Just as Buddhist monks do when they find the reincarnated spirit of their departed leader, she said, “Oh, my Precious Teacher, I’m so glad I found you again!” The woman and the little white dog went home together.

The little white dog lives with his human, and another human, and two big, bouncy dogs, in a small house in the woods. The little white dog has been given the name Trisket because it’s quick and playful, with a shaggy “s”, and it makes an “rrr” sound, just like the little white dog does. Sometimes a name can remind you of who you are. The best names do that.

Each day Trisket is remembering more of his wisdom. Each day he is helping the woman remember more of her own wisdom. As he remembers,Trisket will become the woman’s dog-friend and companion in all things. He and the woman will become a team. Each will be the other’s Precious Teacher and they will remember how to dance together. It will be a new dance, but it will also be the same dance, danced over and over again, the same way each time because that is what dogs prefer.