The Journey

When you bring a pet into your life, you begin a
journey. A journey that will
bring you more love and devotion than you have
ever known, yet will also test
your strength and courage. If you allow, the
journey will teach you many
things, about life, about yourself, and most of
all, about love. You will
come away changed forever, for one soul cannot
touch another without leaving
its mark.

Along the way, you will learn much about savoring
life's simple pleasures --
jumping in leaves, snoozing in the sun, the joys
of puddles, and even the
satisfaction of a good scratch behind the ears. If
you spend much time
outside, you will be taught how to truly
experience every element, for no
rock, leaf, or log will go unexamined, no rustling
bush will be overlooked,
and even the very air will be inhaled, pondered,
and noted as being full of
valuable information.

Your pace may be slower, except when heading home
to the food dish, but you
will become a better naturalist, having been
taught by an expert in the
field. Too many times we hike on automatic pilot,
our goal being to complete
the trail rather than enjoy the journey. We miss
the details: the colorful
mushrooms on the rotting log, the honeycomb in the
old maple snag, the hawk
feather caught on a twig.

Once we walk as a dog does, we discover a whole
new world. We stop; we browse
the landscape, we kick over leaves, peek in tree
holes, look up, down, all
around. And we learn what any dog knows that
nature has created a marvelously
complex world that is full of surprises, that each
cycle of the seasons bring
ever changing wonders, each day an essence all its
own.

Even from indoors you will find yourself more
attuned to the world around
you. You will find yourself watching: summer
insects collecting on a screen;
how fascinating they are; how many kinds there are or
noting the flick and flash
of fireflies through the dark. You will stop to
observe the swirling dance
of windblown leaves, or sniff the air after a
rain. It does not matter that
there is no objective in this; the point is in the
doing, in not letting
life's most important details slip by.

You will find yourself doing silly things that
your pet-less friends might
not understand: spending thirty minutes in the
grocery aisle looking for the
cat food brand your feline must have, buying dog
birthday treats, or driving
around the block an extra time because your pet
enjoys the ride. You will
roll in the snow, wrestle with chewie toys, bounce
little rubber balls till
your eyes cross, and even run around the house
trailing your bathrobe tie
with a cat in hot pursuit, all in the name of love.
Your house will become muddier and hairier. You
will wear less dark clothing
and buy more lint rollers. You may find dog
biscuits in your pocket or purse,
and feel the need to explain that an old plastic
shopping bag adorns your
living room rug because your cat loves the crinkly
sound.


You will learn the true measure of love.
The steadfast, undying kind
that says, "It doesn't
matter where we are or what we do, or how life
treats us as long as we are
together."

Respect this always. It is the most precious gift
any living soul can give
another. You will not find it often among the
human race. And you will learn
humility. The look in my dog's eyes often made me
feel ashamed. Such joy and
love at my presence. She saw not some flawed human
who could be cross and
stubborn, moody or rude, but only her wonderful
companion. Or maybe she saw
those things and dismissed them as mere human
foibles, not worth considering,
and so chose to love me anyway.

If you pay attention and learn well, when the
journey is done, you will be
not just a better person, but the person your pet
always knew you to be. The
one they were proud to call beloved friend.

I must caution you that this journey is not
without pain. Like all paths of
true love, the pain is part of loving. For as
surely as the sun sets, one day
your dear animal companion will follow a trail you
cannot yet go down. And
you will have to find the strength and love to let
them go.

A pet's time on earth is far too short, especially
for those that love them.
We borrow them, really, just for a while, and
during these brief years they
are generous enough to give us all their love,
every inch of their spirit and
heart, until one day there is nothing left. The
cat that only yesterday was a
kitten is all too soon old and frail and sleeping in the sun. The young pup
of boundless energy now wakes up stiff and lame,
the muzzle gone to gray.

Deep down we somehow always knew that this journey
would end. We knew that if
we gave our hearts they would be broken. But give
them we must for it is all
they ask in return. When the time comes, and the
road curves ahead to a place
we cannot see, we give one final gift and let them
run on ahead, young and
whole once more. "God speed, good friend," we say,
until our journey comes
full circle and our paths cross again.

~unknown~