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-   simple 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 when you once saw youth. You will see slow deliberate steps where you once saw energy. And you will see sleep when you once saw activity. So you will begin to adjust your friend's diet 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. 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 decided for you, then 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 lone 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 many 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.

At 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 embrace it and reject 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 fouth day when, along with the memory of your pet, and piercing through the heaviness of your heart, there will come a realisation that comes only to you. It will be as unique and strong as our relationship with each animal we have loved and lost. This realisation takes the form of a Living Love- like the heavenly scent of a rose that remains after the petals have wilted, the 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, to join our Beloved Pets- it is a Love we will always possess.

 

~Martin Scot Kosins~