If you ever loved an animal, there are three days in
your life you will always remember...
The first is a day, blessed with happiness, when you
bring home your young new friend. You may have spent weeks deciding on a
breed. You may have asked numerous opinions of many vets, or done long
research in finding a breeder.
Or, perhaps in a fleeting moment, you may have just
chosen that silly looking mutt in a shelter - simply because something
in its eyes reached your heart. But when you bring that chosen pet home,
and watch it explore, and claim its special place in your hall or front
room - and when you feel it brush against you for the first time - it
instills a feeling of pure love you will carry with you through the many
years to come.
The second day will occur eight or nine or ten years
later. It will be a day like any other. Routine and unexceptional. But,
for a surprising instant, you will look at your longtime friend and see
age where you once saw youth. You will see slow deliberate steps where
you once saw energy. And you will see sleep where you once saw activity.
So you will begin to adjust your friend's diet - and you may add a pill
or two to her food. And you may feel a growing fear deep within
yourself, which bodes of a coming emptiness. And you will feel this
uneasy feeling, on and off, until the third day finally arrives.
And on this day, if your friend and God have not decided
for you, you will be faced with making a decision of your own - on
behalf of your lifelong friend, and with the guidance of your own
deepest Spirit. But whichever way your friend eventually leaves you, you
will feel as alone as a single star in the dark night.
If you are wise, you will let the tears flow as freely
and as often as they must. And if you are typical, you will find that
not many in your circle of family or friends will be able to understand
your grief, or comfort you.
But if you are true to the love of the pet you cherished
through the many joy-filled years, you may find that a soul - a bit
smaller in size than your own - seems to walk with you, at times, during
the lonely days to come. And at moments when you least expect anything
out of the ordinary to happen, you may feel something brush against your
leg - very very lightly. And looking down at the place where your dear,
perhaps dearest, friend used to lay - you will remember those three
significant days.
The memory will most likely be painful, and leave an
ache in your heart. As time passes the ache will come and go as it has a
life of its own. You will both reject it and embrace it, and it may
confuse you. If you reject it, it will depress you. If you embrace it,
it will deepen you. Either way, it will still be an ache.
But there will be, I assure you, a fourth day when -
along with the memory of your pet, and piercing through the heaviness in
your heart - there will come a realization that belongs only to you. It
will be as unique and strong as our relationship with each animal we
have loved, and lost. This realization takes the form of a Living Love -
like the heavenly scent of a rose that remains after the petals have
wilted, this Love will remain and grow - and be there for us to
remember.
It is a love we have earned. It is the legacy our pets
leave us when they go. And it is a gift we may keep with us as long as
we live. It is a Love which is ours alone. And until we ourselves leave,
perhaps to join our Beloved Pets - it is a Love that we will always
possess.
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