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Old
dog Tray’s ever faithful;
Grief can not drive him away;
He is gentle, he is kind—
I shall never, never find
A better friend than old dog Tray!
—
Stephen C. Foster (1826-1864)
Old Dog Tray
NORTON (Zimbabwe) — In a land marred by unbridled violence and racial
slaughters, the only semblance of humanity comes from a dog.
Yesterday, a 51-year-old farmer named Terry Ford became the 10th
person to be hunted and killed in Zimbabwe's ongoing land seizures
encouraged by recently re-elected President Robert Mugabe. Beside
the farmer's mutilated corpse, authorities found the man's devoted dog who
"would not leave the farmer's body."
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Little Squeak huddles close to the body of
his murdered friend. "The dog would not leave the farmer's body,"
said SPCA director Meryl Harrison. (Photo: Reuters)
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The dog, a 14-year-old Jack Russell
Terrier named "Squeak", was retrieved from Mr. Ford's farmland
west of Harare along with the man's two
Border Collies and taken to the Zimbabwe SPCA led by Meryl Harrison.
Ms.  Harrison described the devoted dog: "Squeak never left Terry's
side. He went everywhere with his owner. He was with Terry
Ford when the farmer tried to leave his farm in a vehicle."
The Sun newspaper
reports:
"[Mr. Ford] tried to escape attackers by driving through a fence after a car
blocked his main gate. But he was dragged from the car, tied to a tree and blasted through
the head."
The killers are widely believed to be
part of President Mugabe's so-called "war veterans" of the 1970s Liberation War
acting on the president's vow to speed up the land seizures of white-owned
farms. Mugabe asserted this vow immediately following his
re-election last week.
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Ms. Kuch said that the faithful terrier is "a symbol of the
devotion and loyalty of dogs, even in death. It was a remarkable
demonstration of the bond and companionship between man and animals."
According to reports, it took the slain man's mourning relatives an
hour yesterday to coax the little dog into their car so they could take
him away. Squeak is currently being cared for by one of
the farmer's close friends, says the SPCA.
"He was crying when the body was found and he is still crying
now. In fact, he hasn't stopped," said one friend of the
family.
It can never be put into words—even if it were known—what horror
must have gone through Terry Ford's mind in those last violent moments on
Earth. We can only hope that, rather than leaving this world with
such bitter laments, the dead man may have instead awakened to a sort of
ironic tranquility, as if a tiny, familiar face were saying to him: I will be right here.
He
asks no Angel’s wing, no Seraph’s fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
— Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
An Essay on Man
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