Chucky, Chuck-Chuck, Chuckalaka

If humans had lessons to learn, you would have been the perfect lecturer. In fact, I can picture an auditorium filled with faces of the people that knew you, all waiting eagerly for your address. You would walk into the hall and, like you did each and every single day of your short life, your mere presence would immediately induce a smile for each member of the audience. I imagine that your opening line would be a joke about your distinguished under bite and you would seal it impeccably with a straight face amidst the raucous laughter. Your lecture would no doubt be about commitment, a topic that you were always an expert at, and one which you were an ambassador for through sheer (dogged) determination and unstinting enthusiasm. Your anecdotes would be the clincher. You would talk about the times you fetched a ball that was stuck in a tree, the countless occasions when the ball needed rescuing from the pool and even how you and the sloped edging pavers could keep everyone bemused for hours. You would highlight the mystery surrounding all the search and retrievals from deep in the bush and those when you returned with a thorn in your foot. Then you would mention the long runs with Warren and how you kept up using only 3 legs, such was your ability. Your BFF, probably based on him being the only creature similar to you in size, was Hobbes. You would include him in the lecture and commend his tolerance for your enthusiasm and emphasize his valuable companionship on the bed when the days were done. Above all else, more than the love for, and fun you had at the ‘Village’, more than the adventures you shared with Dobby, Shaka Zulu and Naja, beyond even your zest for life, you would mention the love you had for your human companion, Warren. Yes, your lecture would explain in detail just how close you two were and how all your activities, from running to sleeping, from hiding to finding, and from just plain bonding to true loyalty, were all the things you needed to be content. You would go on to say that the very things that made you happy, were the things you gave 100% commitment to, and for that reason they were all done so magnificently, and were so engaging for all privileged to witness them. What you would not have mentioned was that your lectures would come to an untimely end and we would be left to write about them based purely on our vivid memories of the moments. Then again, you lived like each lecture was going to be your last so perhaps you knew, as we didn’t, that living lectures are more magical and memorable if they are done with total conviction and commitment, and by just being happy to make people happy. Your ball has been thrown and while we know it won’t be retrieved this time, we are still going to leave it out there for you to find.

Thank you Chucky, you champion, you legend.