Wednesday, January 25, 2012

IN LIVING MEMORY...

Two dear friends of mine have had to start that painful journey this month, of transitioning from a physical/spiritual connection with their beloved dog to a purely spiritual one.


It can take a lot of work to lean into that wrenching pain instead of away from it, and allow ourselves to find that sacred space inside of us where the agony and ecstasy merge; where love and connection lives and can never, ever die.

Thanks to Gretchen Kuhns for this lovely poem by Henry Van Dyke, which was written on the beautiful memorial cards she sent out for her heart dog, Biskit.


To our boys, Frisbee and Biskit- we bless you in your transitions. We bless your pet parents. May your souls soar free while always staying connected to those you loved most.


“I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white
sails to the morning breeze and starts
for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says;
"There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull
and spar as she was when she left my side
and she is just as able to bear her
load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, "There, she is gone!"
There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad
shout;
"Here she comes!"
And that is dying.”







Sunday, January 15, 2012

YES, I'M ASKING: WHO CUT THE CHEESE?!?


Ahhh, cheese.
Delicious, creamy, convenient, tasty, easy, wonderful cheese!
  • Full of salt.
  • Full of steroids and hormones (eg: Bovine Somatotropin: synthesized growth hormones injected into cows for more milk production).
  • A mucous-forming nightmare to the immune system (stop eating it for a week and notice how much less nasal you sound and how you're not blowing your nose as much).
  • Even Dr. Oz's wife, Lisa, has tweeted about the addictive chemicals in cheese and her difficulty and determination to stop eating it forever.
I saw an online recipe today for "natural" home-made dog treats. It had 3 ingredients and one of them was cheese.

Please, pet parents- DO NOT give your beloved pets cheese in any form for any reason. Or sugar. Those things are slow-acting poisons and are far more harmful to our pets than to us because their life spans are so much shorter.

They really aren't going to love you more because you feed them ingredients that are tasty and unhealthy. They have no choice but to eat the things YOU CHOOSE to give them. Why not make sure those things are only healthy ones?


If you want to make your dog really happy, take him on an extra walk this week instead of showing your love with unhealthy food.

In other words, go ahead and continue to blame the dog for cutting the cheese, but please don't feed him/her cheese anymore. Like me- commit yourself to bad puns instead of bad ingredients.







Sunday, January 1, 2012

2012

Loved getting this from a local pet sitter and happy to pass it on to you all:
May you have as much fun in 2012 as you can before someone makes you stop!