Sacred
Pets
“Thought
subsides when you pet your dog, or you have a purring cat on your chest. Even
watching an animal can take you out of your mind. It is more deeply connected
with the source of life than most human beings, and that rootedness of Being
transmits itself to you. Millions of people who otherwise would be completely
lost in the conceptual reality of their minds are kept sane by living with an
animal.”
Eckhart
Tolle
The experience of sending Maggie to her maker is still resounding in me. She wasn’t
my dog, but she was the alpha of her pack which included Barley and Gidget, and
I have “dog-set” for all of them for years. Maggie did not suffer fools but was
never outright aggressive. She gave them a shove with her Corgi-shoulder accompanied
by a deep sound of thunder from within, and they got the message. Watching the
two underlings stand at attention to observe her passing, was a little like
watching those still and silent guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Hound-Barley,
who’s not the swiftest pet on the planet, and Gidget, who’s a frisky, perky, jumping
bean of a Lhasa apso in real life, silently bore witness and then made
comforting their humans their top priority. So, when I read Eckhart Tolle’s quote on
Facebook (thanks to Andrea Mathews) I believed that animals are more deeply
connected to the source of life than most humans.
I have
had pets my whole life. I can’t imagine not having animal friends around. I
talk to Liza-dog like I would talk to you, and she telepaths her answers. When
she really needs something, and I’m ignoring her, she literally climbs up my
chest and gets eye to eye until I respond. As Martin Buber said, “An animal’s
eyes have the power to speak a great language.”
My
friend, David, said goodbye to his cat Pepe this week, too. He says that naps
will never be the same again. We may have droves of human friends, and they are
wonderful, but our pets never ask us stupid questions, or say that dreaded
sentence, “We need to talk.” (Uh-oh!) Our pets may think those things, but they
have the patience to just sigh and know that we humans are hopelessly egocentric.
They love us anyway. Robert Breault said, “The difference between friends
and pets is that we allow friends into our company, pets we allow into our
solitude.” So true—especially at nap time.
“[Pets]
are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole.” (Roger Caras) Those
of us who are anxious by nature, know that pets ground us, calm us, and help us
sleep. They are better than melatonin, believe me. And, finally, those of you
who don’t believe that pets have a soul, well, you simply need help. If you had
known Maggie, if you had watched Barley and Gidget observing a respectful
moment of silence, you would know better. They understand that souls may leave
bodies, but they don’t leave hearts. We carry them always.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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