Soul mates - my sweet Moses

I don't think one has to have any type of belief to think of very special people or animals as a soul mate. I could be wrong, but even if you do not believe in a soul, I think you can still wrap your mind around what a soul mate is.

Most of the time when I hear the words soul mate it is in reference to a human, usually coming from a heterosexual woman in reference to her male partner. I seldom hear men talk about such things.

This post is about one of my soul mates, Moses, who happened to be a dog.

Moses passed away in July of 2007 at the age of 14. He had been part of my family since November of 1998 when I found him trudging along I-5 in San Clemente, California.

For me it was love at first sight.

Moses changed me. He was a dog that had been severely abused and neglected, yet the first night with me, with no shelter or vet open until the next day, he slept comfortably in my tent. When I would wake up to check on him I would hear this swooshing sound. Not sure of what it was, I soon realized that whenever I would speak to him he would wag his tail.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, this whole intense tail wagging thing would be come part of what people would think of when thinking of Moses. No matter who you were, no matter what Moses had been through and no matter what humans before us had done to him, he would wag his tail with huge effort upon seeing anyone.

Moses was part Coon hound, so combined with his amazing bark and his wagging tail, he was quite the sight.

Moses was pure love. He loved every being he came in contact with. He especially loved humans. He taught me so much about love, and forgiveness.

Sweet Moses! I still think of him all of the time, and every once in a while I look at the spot where his bed used to be, where I last saw him.

A true soul mate. A true love, filled with so many wonderful things.

Thank you for reading.

Caring for a senior companion animal

Note: This is another one of those very personal posts.

Mike and I returned home from vacation to our senior companion animal Rock, a 16 1/2 year old Yorkie who in the time we were gone went from being old and not in great shape to being old and in bad shape and not being able to walk.

We all get to this point. Some more often than others. Mike and I certainly have been here before.

As Rock has gotten older he has lost a good portion of his sight and a lot of his hearing (although his hearing always returns when there is food or a treat involved!). He doesn't like going outside to pee as it's a long walk for an old dog with short legs, so he gets out of bed and pees in the hallway or the living room or the kitchen. He can't jump up on anything and gets uncomfortable easy. He never sleeps through the night and one or both of us are up two to three times during the night to take him out and love on him.

It can be exhausting. And we would do so much more.

His attitude and personality and appetite are all at 100%.

His back and legs are not. Upon return from vacation we took him to the vet and began the conversation around what we can do, and more distressingly for us, when nothing else can be done. After a long exam with our trusted vet and some x-rays, we decided to change the meds Rock is on and to invite another vet who does acupuncture and laser treatment for dogs and cats in a similar condition to our home. Yes, she does house visits!

More importantly, and very difficult for us but so critical for Rock, we decided that if the med change and acupuncture did not work within a week or so, and that Rock could still not walk or get up on his own, that we would do what we believe would be best for Rock and have him euthanized.

The emotions in just writing about this are huge and uncomfortable and in a sense tragic. Rock has been part of Mike's life for over 16 years and part of mine for almost 10. He is our family. He is my little schmeagle beagle.

The day after the vet visit and the change in meds the vet who does acupuncture and laser treatment came over. The treatments lasted an hour. She really impressed Mike and the treatments seemed to help Rock right away, at least in making him more comfortable in his own body.

Two days later Rock has been able to stand outside to do his thing, and has walked from the kitchen to the living room to the bedroom. He is definitely showing signs of being in less pain, and we are cautiously optimistic. Not for ten more years with him, but a life with him that is one day at a time and includes him being in little or no pain with the ability to walk and go to the bathroom on his own.

Thank you so much for reading this post. I will keep you all updated as we continue this process.

Make a plan for your companion animals

Reading an article this morning reminded me about a blog post I have been meaning to write. The article is about a woman who passed away suddenly and how the local animal shelter is taking care of her dog.

We have run into this a lot. I remember several years back when we met Linus and Lucy. I was at Maxfund cleaning cages. They were sharing a cage and I realized that they were petrified. I learned that their person had passed away suddenly and they had ended up in a shelter. In the couple of hours that I was there they pooped all over themselves three times. I called Mike and we took them in as fosters.

Linus and Lucy were both older, Maltese-mix dogs. Beautiful and loving. We could tell that they had been loved and adored. They were definitely freaked out about losing their person AND ending up in a noisy shelter.

They loved being with us. Whenever Mike was home they were on his lap. There was never enough cuddle time for them!

After a couple of weeks with us a wonderful woman adopted them.

Please make a plan for your companion animals. Yes, I mean including them in your will. If you don't have a will, you can still plan for your animals by making agreements with your friends or family. We have fostered and cared for so many beautiful dogs whose person did not have a plan. The ones we have cared for were the lucky ones.

We have a plan. And we are part of some of our friends' plans. We want to make sure that all of our family members will be taken care of and loved by people we know if anything tragic happens to us.

So go ahead. Do it today. Call a friend or favorite family member or someone who works at your vets office.  Make sure your family member(s) is/are going to be safe if something unforeseen happens.

Thanks for reading!

Overwhelming grief

On January 30th of this year our beloved Shadow passed away. I wrote about her life and had wonderful conversations with our readers about the loss I felt and the amazing gratitude I felt for having had the privilege of being part of her life.

Shadow lived a full 14 years before she met us. When we met her she had suffered neglect, but she was spry and loving. Our original deal was to foster her so I picked her up one day from a temporary situation and drove her to the vet for a checkup.

I will never forget her being in the passenger seat of my truck and once I stopped in the parking lot at the vets she walked onto my lap and gave me a big kiss. I said to her then not to do that as I was only fostering her.

She knew better than that.

Shadow was 18 when she passed away. The sadness was hardcore. I took a half-day off of work, shared with friends and family about my sadness and sense of loss, and moved on.

So I thought.

What I truly love about this blog and the relationship I have built with those who read this blog and support it is that I have always been honest about what I write about and how I truly feel about the topic or the situation.

The grief I have is still incredibly strong. Sure, I smile, I go to work and rock it, I volunteer, I love on our companion animals, I make sure my husband knows how much I love and adore him. Yet in the quiet of the drive home, the still morning in my office before others arrive, reading in bed at night or swinging on the backyard hammock, the grief I feel for the loss of my Shadow is strong and feels like it will never pass.

Some days I still think Shadow is physically here. I hear something in the bedroom and think it is her getting up to come join us. Or I turn the light on in the bedroom and immediately turn it off remembering that she is in there sleeping when in fact she's not. And so on.

I know the hardcore grief will pass. And I am way grateful to all of you for your love, support and stories of those you have lost.  I am also grateful to feel the love for another living being, and feel the pain that goes with not having them in my life anymore. The love I feel for this little 14 pound lovely is truly a gift.

Thank you for reading!