This post is not about Charles Darwin, but about a dog named after him. Darwin the dog died yesterday, and although it’s unusual for me to post on a canid, he was the beloved pet of two good friends, Andrzej and Malgorzata, who run the Polish secular website Racjonalista. Darwin, who was 14, was also good friends with my favorite rationalist cat, Hili, but had become seriously ill within the last three days. Things looked dicey, and the possibility arose that he would have to be put to sleep.
This morning I woke up to an email from Malgorzata that I dreaded. It said simply, “There is no Darwin anymore.” And that’s what death is: no dog, no person, no living creature anymore.
I asked Malgorzata and Andrzej to send me a few particulars about Darwin and some pictures to memorialize him here. This is what they sent:
This is the story of our Darwin.
Darwin had his name before he was even conceived. When we decided to move from London to rural Poland I said that I wanted a dog and that he would be named after my hero, Charles Darwin. So when Andrzej’s cousin announced some month later that she had a puppy for us there was no discussion about his name. We collected a 6 weeks old adorable ball of white fur.
The ball grew with astonishing speed, the white fur turned into golden color, but, unfortunately, the mind of the da\og was not developing at all. He was the most lovable and loving creature but not excessively bright. I even wondered if there was a canine Down Syndrome. So my not very bright idea to name the dog after my intellectual hero ended with me shouting: “Darwin, you idiot, what are you doing?!” with Andrzej laughing and saying that it is lucky no creationist was around.
Two years later Darwin got a wife – she had chosen him. A stray dog came to the gate and looked with adoration at our handsome Darwin. We let her in, tried to find the owner and when we couldn’t, we let her adopt us. Of course, she was named Emma (much smarter than he, she was soon the leader of the pack).
Darwin adored our cat Pia and was ecstatically happy when, after Pia died, we got a little kitten Hili. Darwin decided that he was her grandfather and allowed her to do everything she wanted with him, patiently looking at the brazen creature crawling all over him and pulling his tail.
He had a good life and lived to a ripe old age of 14. He had also a good death – before he started to suffer too much the vet put him to sleep with both of us petting him and holding his head.
RIP Darwin.
Condolences to the owners, who obviously gave Darwin a wonderful life. My eyes did well up a little bit.
Been there, done that.
Glass raised to Darwin.
Sweet, sad story.
Condolences on the loss of a loved one. It does look like Darwin lived a good live in a loving home, and he even had the luck to have a couple of moggies in his life.
Please extend my condolences. My dog, now 13, Ms.Einstein, abandoned and then adopted at the age of 5, was also inappropriately named. After just a short time with her I was deeply disappointed that she could not live up to her name. However, I find as I grow older along with her, she seems to have broken through. Perhaps the problem all along was mine for misunderstanding. Einstein does not do well with verbal commands. But she reads body language like a champ. So now I use hand signals and she is, what I believe, an exceptionally smart dog.
The one big thing my dog has taught me and hopefully Darwin also taught, was that it is a waste of time to worry about death. Neither Darwin nor Einstein had (have) any conception of death and so they live each day taking life as it comes–a great lesson for humans.
May memories of Darwin overpower your grief. Christine
Lovely, Christine.
He looked like he was probably a Golden Retriever. I find them to be very loving, friendly and good with children. Not the smartest breed but not the dumbest either. 14 years is a long life for a dog that size and Goldens have more than their share of heath issues. I will always have Goldens even though I love all dogs.
Although WEIT has helped me to become fond of cats, I am a dog lover at heart and feel for Andrzej and Malgorzata. Darwin looks like he was a real sweetheart! He was nice to kitties, too, so you know he was a good doggie!
When it comes to acknowledging death even atheists often use the phrase “rest in peace”, which seems to imply that the deceased somehow still exists, yet as Professor Coyne pointed out, “that’s what death is: no dog, no person, no living creature anymore”. I wonder, is there a phrase we could use that conveys respect for the memory of the one who has died, as well as sympathy to that person’s loved ones, friends, and admirers without implying that that person in some way still exists?
I’ve wanted to bring that up every time I see a post that uses that phrase in conjunction with the death of an admired figure, such as Christopher Hitchens, but refrain from doing so because I worry that it will appear insensitive to the sorrow being expressed. I hope I’m not derailing this thread by bringing it up now, but it’s a question that’s been vexing me for some time, and I thought this would be as good a time as any to bring it up.
Andrzej and Malgorzata, you have my sympathy, and I hope you’ll find another dog to keep Emma company. Perhaps you can name the next one Watson or Crick? (I think Watson is a great dog name!)
How about YAR (You Are Remembered)?
Sounds reasonable!
What a sweet story. You gave Darwin a very special gift; a death surrounded by love after a wonderful life with you.
Our thanks to all for kind words and warm feelings. It feels very empty and Emma and Hili cannot fill the hole Darwin left. Explanation: Darwin was not a Golden Retriever. His mother was a Polish Tatra Sheepdog and father was unknown (probably some mongrel from the village the mother lived in) but he did look like a Golden Retriever and he loved children.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
Wow. Stories like this fill me equally with tears and joy. Tears because of the loss suffered by this beautiful dogs family, joy at the thought he had fourteen years of fun, running backwards and wagging his head! Condolences on the loss, and an extra sad wag of the tail from my black Labrador Stanley.
Thank you for sharing this. My heart goes out to Darwin’s family. I lost my own Darwin (a rather astute Australian Shepherd) nearly four years ago. I still miss him. His ashes sit on a shelf in my den waiting to be spread with mine; along with those of his “brother”, Wallace, and his “sister”, Maya.
We too have handsome boxes with the ashes of Tootsie and Dingus awaiting to join our ashes when our days are over.
I’m really sorry to hear you have lost a beloved friend. Many of us know what that feels like, and nothing ever quite fills the space they leave behind.
All we can do is cherish the memories of fun and love. For those we are fortunate.
Condolensces for your loss. Darwin looked like a great dog.
Congratulations for having had such a nice dog and “way to go” for giving him a good, long life.
We had to euthanize our Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Yogi, a year ago. I don’t know that Yogi had no sense of death, but I do know that it’s a civilized and compassionate thing to be able to put a pet out of her misery and suffering too bad we haven’t yet found a legal way to do it for ourselves.
It’s not easy to lose a beloved and loving pet. You have my sympathy.
Family members you see. That’s what it is. They arrive from whatever circumstance into our lives and burrow into our hearts and make a home there. They leave a gaping hole when they go. So sorry.
Bob
What I wanted to say, had I known how.
So sorry for your loss, A & M.