A Living Love
If
you ever love 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 a long research in finding a breeder. Or, perhaps in a
fleeting moment, you may have just chosen the 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 you hall or front room—and 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 when
you once say activity. So, you will begin to adjust your friend’s diet—and you
may add a pill or two in its food. And you may feel a growing fear deep within
yourself, which bodes of 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, then you will be
faced with making a decision of you 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 you 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—seams
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 if 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 we will always possess.