yep - i still cry

last night i was home by myself. i turned the tv on and started flipping through the channels & finally something caught my eye. it was a movie i had watched in my early childhood days. i loved it then and i wanted to watch it again to see if this movie still had the same impact on me now as it did then. you probably have seen it a time or two. it was the 1974 version of "where the red fern grows."



i suppose i have always had a very soft spot in my heart for puppies. pee wee was our family dog growing up. i'm not quite sure what breed pee wee was. but one thing i really liked is that pee wee had red hair like the majority of my family. he was such a sweet pup & i loved him.


my kids and i have had a few family dogs to love on. and i have shed tears every time one of them has had to leave our family. just ask the kids, i still cry when we start talking about our cute pups. i just can't help it (you guessed it - i'm doing it now.) our dogs have loved us unconditionally, no matter what!

back to the movie. i think we can learn a few things from billy and his two coon hounds old dan and little ann. i love the themes that run throughout the movie. determination, spirituality, sacrifice, love beyond loyalty and family. i'm not embarrassed to say that i cried and cried at the end of the movie. when we went to costco today i was telling breanne about my tv experience last night and i even started crying then. she just smiled. thanks bre for indulging me.

i love these quotes from the author of the book, wilson rawls.

"Although they couldn't talk in my terms, they had a language of their own that was easy to understand. Sometimes I would see the answer in their eyes, and again it would be in the friendly wagging of their tails. Other times I could hear the answer in a low whine or feel it in the soft caress of a warm flicking tongue. In some way, they would always answer."

"People have been trying to understand dogs ever since the beginning of time. One never knows what they'll do. You can read every day where a dog saved the life of a drowning child, or lay down his life for his master. Some people call this loyalty. I don't. I may be wrong, but I call it love--the deepest kind of love.'"

"I'm sure the red fern has grown and has completely covered the two little mounds. I know it is still there, hiding its secret beneath those long, red leaves, but it wouldn't be hidden from me for part of my life is buried there too. Yes, I know it is still there, for in my heart I believe the legend of the sacred red fern."