THE DEPTH OF AN ENORMOUS BOND

"We recognize that animals seem to feel more intensely and purely than we do.  Perhaps we yearn to express ourselves with such abandon and integrity.  Animals fully reveal to us what we already glimpse: it is feeling ~ and the organization of feeling~ that forms the core of self.  We also sense that through our relationship to animals we can recover that which is true within us and, through the discovery of that truth within us and, through the discovery of that truth, find our spiritual direction.  Quite simply, animals teach us about love: how to love, how to enjoy being loved, how loving itself is an activity that generates more love, radiating out and encompassing an ever larger circle of others." ~Mary Lou Randour, Animal Grace

 

 

I chose this photograph I took years ago of my beloved Penny.  She was inducted into the TEXAS ANIMAL HALL OF FAME and was selected as one of the MOST DISTINGUISHED ANIMALS IN THE UNITED STATES. She was one of a kind and always will be to me. And she will always be close to that lump in my throat when I remember sitting on the floor releasing tons of tension just brushing her beautiful fur. She loved me as I did her, so deeply that I often thought my heart would burst. She died after a three year battle with cancer and will always remain a very large part of who I am and the direction I took in life with her by my side. Penny taught me about love and how deep it can be for another creature on this earth.  When she looked at me her eyes melted right into my soul.  Until the day she left me I remember every breath she took and the depth of a love I had never known before.

 

She stopped burglars from breaking into my home the first night I had her.  The next day I found out our birthdays were the same, February 20th.  It was a done deal. She was mine and I was hers for 10 years.  The sculpture in the photograph is done by a famous artist.  I reminds me of my Penny and how I sometimes felt like a little girl when she buried her face into my chest.

 

She always held me to the present.  She could read me like a book, involuntary and voluntary.

To her I was exposed and wide open.  I could be myself.  I could finally be myself.

****

It was in Penny's memory and in her honor that I wrote PENNY'S FROM HEAVEN: STORIES OF HEALING. She brought so much joy, comfort and peace to the thousands of patients across the country as a therapy dog.  But more than that as an extension of me.  She and I together were a team.  A good team.  Together we made a difference. 

 

Today would have been her birthday with me.  Today, as each and every day, I miss her.