Dogs Never Die

I just read this on the internet and for me it's the best thing I've read in a long time. If we could just manage to look at things this way, it might just make a loss a little easier to bear.

Dogs Never Die

Some of you, particularly those who think they have recently lost a dog to “death,” don’t really understand this. I’ve had no desire to explain, but won’t be around forever and must.

Dogs never die. They don’t know how to. They get tired, and very old, and their bones hurt. Of course they don’t die. If they did they would not want to always go for a walk, even long after their old bones say: “No, no, not a good idea. Let’s not go for a walk.” Nope, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might get one step before their aging tendons collapse them into a heap on the floor, but that’s what dogs do. They walk.

It’s not that they dislike your company. On the contrary, a walk with you is all there is. Their boss, and the cacophonic symphony of odor that the world is. Cat poop, another dog’s mark, a rotting chicken bone (exultation), and you. That’s what makes their world perfect, and in a perfect world death has no place.

However, dogs get very very sleepy. That’s the thing, you see. They don’t teach you that at the fancy university where they explain about quarks, gluons, and Keynesian economics. They know so much they forget that dogs never die. It’s a shame, really. Dogs have so much to offer and people just talk a lot.

When you think your dog has died, it has just fallen asleep in your heart. And by the way, it is wagging its tail madly, you see, and that’s why your chest hurts so much and you cry all the time. Who would not cry with a happy dog wagging its tail in their chest? Ouch! Wap wap wap wap wap, that hurts. But they only wag when they wake up. That’s when they say: “Thanks Boss! Thanks for a warm place to sleep and always next to your heart, the best place.”

When they first fall asleep, they wake up all the time, and that’s why, of course, you cry all the time. Wap, wap, wap. After a while they sleep more. (Remember, a dog while is not a human while. You take your dog for walk, it’s a day full of adventure in an hour. Then you come home and it’s a week, well one of your days, but a week, really, before the dog gets another walk. No WONDER they love walks.)

Anyway, like I was saying, they fall asleep in your heart, and when they wake up, they wag their tail. After a few dog years, they sleep for longer naps, and you would too. They were a GOOD DOG all their life, and you both know it. It gets tiring being a good dog all the time, particularly when you get old and your bones hurt and you fall on your face and don’t want to go outside to pee when it is raining but do anyway, because you are a good dog. So understand, after they have been sleeping in your heart, they will sleep longer and longer.

But don’t get fooled. They are not “dead.” There’s no such thing, really. They are sleeping in your heart, and they will wake up, usually when you’re not expecting it. It’s just who they are.

I feel sorry for people who don’t have dogs sleeping in their heart. You’ve missed so much. Excuse me, I have to go cry now.

Copied from http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/dogs-never-die-a-lesson-for-all-...

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Permalink Reply by Robin and Libby Louise on August 15, 2014 at 7:04am

Lovely sentiment. Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by DJ & Chance on August 15, 2014 at 7:27am

Thanks for this Donna.

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Permalink Reply by Miss Ellie on August 15, 2014 at 7:48am

This is a beautiful & fresh perspective...thanks so much for sharing Donna:)

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Kamrath on August 15, 2014 at 8:27am

Love it! Yes, I have a couple of dogs asleep in my heart and they never really do go away. In fact, I have a little framed photo of Groucho Too looking at me right now. That's right, they never really die, they just go to sleep in your heart. My goodness, my heart is full of sleeping people and dogs (my daughter, my sister, and my dogs). What a great way to think about it!