Kate's Funeral

Kate Morgan, wife of Ken morgan, and mother to the wonderful racing basenji known as Dark Skies Morgan's Grace (aka: Gracie). It may seem to be the wrong thing to post as my first installment of my daily journal (hopefully I will be able to continue on with adding to it daily), but it deserves to be spoken of. My good friend Gloria asked me to accompany her to the funeral. I had met Kate and Ken only once before, but knew of their lure coursing exploits as well as the progression of Cancer with Kate, and the shocking Stroke with Ken. I agreed wholeheartedly to go with her. It was in Connecticut.....and of course it was raining. It was a nice funeral. Lots of loving family members and in general was quite nice.....as far as funerals go.

It started off being a typical catholic funeral, incense, chanting, up, down, up down. After that was over (which was quite an experiance for Glo considering she had never witnessed a Catholic funeral) there was a local minister, who just happened to be a close friend of Kate's did a little speech, then her nephew did a speech. It would have been a perfect funeral even if it was ONLY the nephew to speak. He spoke of Kate and how gracious and kind she always was, and he talked about Gracie, their basenji, and how Kate's life revolved around that silly little dog, and how Gracie sat with Kate until the very end.

The interesting thing about Kate's sickness is how Gracie came to be. Gracie was born about 4 years ago, and was a breeding between my own male basenji, Mata Hauri Blockbuster (aka: Bramble) and Glo's Mata Hauri Ambara C-Breeze (aka: Breezy). This litter was planned so that Glo could produce a companion for her ailing mother. She wanted her mom to have a dog to snuggle up with during the long road of sickness. Fortunately her mom has overcome her sickness and enjoys the day to day company of her two basenjis. Lacy, one of the two, just so happens to come from that Bramble/Breezy litter, as does Gracie. So in a way Gracie was born with the expectation of comforting the sickly. She did a wonderful job, staying with her mom till the end, and now has the responsibility of doing the same thing for her dad (who will hopefully be in good health for a long time).

I find that to be a wonderful story. Breezy also became the companion to another sickly lady and laid by her side till the end. Now she is the adoring companion of the remaining spouse, doing just what her daughter will now be doing. I just find it an ironic story.


The ride there and home wasn't bad, even though it was pouring the whole way back. We did stop at Dover and sat in a $6600.00 saddle!!!!! It was the nicest feeling saddle I've ever sat in. Me and Glo must of sat in every single dressage saddle that they had! It was nice, we spent almost two hours looking at horse stuff.....AND we just happened to find her a cream pair of show breeches so she will look better on her very white horse Willoughby :). There was also a $175 pair of GLOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!which were also the same color cream, they would have been PERFECT to go with the breeches.....but OMG way to expensive, it was ridiculous.

Anyways, it was a good day, lots of good food, wonderful people, lots of talk of basenjis, ridgebacks, and of course lots of horsey fun. It was a very long day (we left at 6:30 am, and got back at 8pm) but it was worth it. It was nice to see Gracie, and to see that Ken was doing well, even with his wife Kate being newly deceased. He seemed to be thoroughly happy to talk about Gracie, and to meet Bramble, and some of the other basenjis in April. At the lure coursing trails. I'll write about that when the time comes.

till then~