{"id":351,"date":"2009-04-02T00:58:35","date_gmt":"2009-04-02T04:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/02\/a-lovely-fable\/"},"modified":"2009-04-02T00:58:35","modified_gmt":"2009-04-02T04:58:35","slug":"a-lovely-fable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/a-lovely-fable\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lovely Fable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#794394\" size=\"3\"><strong>This is a lovely fable, but certainly in my way of thinking could really be true for dogs are our greatest companions.&nbsp; I for one cannot live without my dogs. I love my Cavaliers, but I could love almost any dog and welcome it as my companion.<\/strong><\/font> <\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the<br \/>scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. <\/strong><\/font> <\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead<br \/>for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.<br \/>&nbsp;&nbsp; After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of<br \/>the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was<br \/>broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.<br \/>When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that<br \/>looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like<br \/>pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he<br \/>saw a man at a desk to one side. <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When he was close enough, he called out, &#8216;Excuse me, where are we?&#8217;&nbsp; &#8216;This is Heaven, sir,&#8217; the man answered. &#8216;Wow! Would you happen to have some water?&#8217; the man asked. &#8216;Of course, sir. Come right in, and I&#8217;ll have some ice water brought right<br \/>up.&#8217; <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/strong><\/font><font size=\"2\"><strong>The man gestured, and the gate began to open.&nbsp;&nbsp; &#8216;Can my friend,&#8217; gesturing toward his dog, &#8216;come in, too?&#8217; the traveler asked. <\/strong><\/font><font size=\"2\"><strong> &#8216;I&#8217;m sorry, sir, but we don&#8217;t accept pets.&#8217;<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued<br \/>the way he had been going with his dog.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed.. There was no fence.&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree<br \/>and reading a book. &#8216;Excuse me!&#8217; he called to the man. &#8216;Do you have any water?&#8217; <br \/>&#8216;Yeah, sure, there&#8217;s a pump over there, come on in.&#8217;&nbsp; &#8216;How about my friend here?&#8217; the traveler gestured to the dog. &#8216;There should be a bowl by the pump.&#8217; <br \/>They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand<br \/>pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree. &#8216;What do you call this place?&#8217; the traveler asked. <br \/>&#8216;This is Heaven,&#8217; he answered.&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &#8216;Well, that&#8217;s confusing,&#8217; the traveler said. &#8216;The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.&#8217; &#8216;Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? <\/strong><\/font><font size=\"2\"><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; Nope. That&#8217;s hell.&#8217; &#8216;Doesn&#8217;t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?&#8217; &#8216;No, we&#8217;re just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.&#8217;&nbsp; <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <font color=\"#67397d\" size=\"3\">I don&#8217;t know how you would feel, but it would not feel like heaven to me without my best friends!&nbsp; Until next time . . .<\/font><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; This is a lovely fable, but certainly in my way of thinking could really be true for dogs are our greatest companions.&nbsp; I for one cannot live without my dogs. I love my Cavaliers, but I could love almost any dog and welcome it as my companion. A man and his dog were walking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}