Rafiki

Dear Rafiki

I remember when my dad called to tell me that he had just bought me a puppy. A small, clever, naughty, mischievous, adventurous jack russel.

It was 2009 and I was living in Pretoria at the time. I could not wait to come home that weekend to meet you.

My dad gave me a task....an honourable one at that. He said I could name you! So I put aside my books (I had been working on an assignment) and set about trying to find you the perfect name! A name with meaning_ so the common Spotty, Blacky, Danger, Topsy were definitely out of the running!

I finally decided on Rafiki- which means 'friend' in Swahili.

Indeed Rafiki you were my four legged best friend! From the time you were small enough to fit in the palm of my hand until you grew into a valiant hero of a dog. Even though Jack Russels are mini dogs you had the heart and personality of a Greyhound or even a lion!

I remember I would always remark at how you probably thought of yourself as a person, in the sense that you never missed an opportunity to sneak into the house and we would find you sitting very comfortably on the couch (like you owned it) watching tv! And when we would say OUT Rafiki, you would just look take one look at us and continue watching tv!!!

I will miss your wagging tail every time you see me especially when I come back from work in the evenings. I swear you were the most excited person (oops u know what I mean) to see me each day, not even my parents rejoiced as much as you did to see me come home! (lol).

Sihle(who calls you 'Ki'), Zorro and I will miss you dearly! (I think I may need to take your bro Zorro to dog counselling). We will all miss u!

Enjoy the big farm in the sky where you can run in lush green open fields, where you can chase many colourful birds, where you can drink water from the sparkling pond. Say hi to Rambo (he's the beautiful white German Shepherd. He's been there for a while now. I'm sure he'll show you around) Tell him we miss him! (PS the silver dish you used to eat out of used to be his). Rambo too deserves his own blog post (I will get to that soon)

Good bye my dear friend and valiant hero- Rafiki!!

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