12.14.2012

See Beautiful

We are pleased to be joining the See Beautiful blog hop today, along with Sugar the Golden Retriever who is generously donating $1.00 to See Beautiful's non-profit of the month, St. Anne's Center - Lantern House PET AREA for everyone who joins the blog hop today.  Isn't she awesome?

I've learned a lot of lessons from my animal companions over the years ... 

Lessons in loving passionately and wholeheartedly even when you know the heartbreak of loss is waiting, unseen but keenly felt, down the road ...

Lessons in patience, when trying to communicate in a loving way with creatures who don't speak your language ...

Lessons in the joy that is yours when, through that patience, you forge a close and loving relationship, and a shared language, with another creature ...

Lessons in tolerance, when blending together animals of different species, personalities, and life histories into a harmonious family unit ...

And perhaps most of all, lessons in being aware that the many precious moments we share with them are, when strung together, the individual pearls in a luminous necklace of memories that help to in some small part sustain us when they have gone on ahead ... 
As one of my personal heroes, Ferris Bueller, was wont to say, "Life moves pretty fast ... if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." 

Our animal friends are masters in the art of never forgetting to stop and look around.  They can spend 30 minutes intensely sniffing a single blade of grass.  When they feel the sun warm on their heads, they never fail to raise their heads skyward, schedules and deadlines be damned ... the better to soak in the blessed, healing warmth.  They love passionately and unreservedly, with no thought for any day of reckoning or loss that may be waiting somewhere beyond the horizon.  That may well be because they aren't capable of the foreknowledge of death, but I choose to believe that it's also because they would rather focus on sucking every possible drop of joy and beauty out of the present than on pointlessly worrying about the future.  
For these reasons and so many others, the two dogs and three cats I am so privileged to share my life with are beautiful beyond all words to me, and it never fails to amaze me that one of the reasons I'm so lucky to have them is because the beauty I see in them, that is all too obvious to me each and every day, was somehow not recognized by others.  Which is those people's loss, whoever and wherever they might be, and my inestimable gain.  
So this post is for Tucker, for Olivia, for Tanner, and Phoebe, and Finn ... 
My sweet and beautiful friends, thank you from the bottom of my heart for enriching my life each and every day with the beauty of your love, companionship, and abiding affection.  I can't imagine what I could have done to deserve it, but I am forever grateful, and although I know you will never read these words, I hope you somehow feel my love for you all, as I feel yours for me.  I believe that you do.  





14 comments:

Golden Woofs! SUGAR said...

Woof! Woof! Beautiful LESSONS. Golden Thanks for sharing and joining our hop. Happy This Moment See Beautiful Friday. Happy seeing beauty. Golden LOVE n lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

Ruby said...

Oh, such beautifuls words from your Moms Tucker!! [sniff, sniff..]
You are some lucky quadpeds to have found a loving, sweet home such as yours!

Kisses,
Ruby

Anonymous said...

Well said. Couldn't have said it any better.

GOOSE said...

Beautiful lessons indeed! And beautifully said. Thank you.
Blessings,
Goose

Angels Amber and Max DaWeenie and Mom said...

A very beautiful post and so nicely written. Thank you.

Ivan from WMD said...

What a very sweet and loving post.

Bassetmomma said...

Very beautiful post with such sweet words! :)

CAB said...

My first mom had to leave me an my sister at the pound because she got the cancers. But my new mom and dad picked me up and we've been happy ever since. Well, except occasionally Zazou will get in the way.

-- Calypso.

GizmoGeodog said...

Tucker I am so happy to meet you and your whole beautiful family today...Your mom has put into words what so many of us feel...And then to find out that we're practically neighbors...Looking forward to getting to know you better *snoogles*

MadSnapper said...

a wonderful tribute to your furbabies and the beauty they bring to your life. awesome photos of all of them.

tubby3pug said...

That is a truly beautiful post. As my companions get older I know that loss is every nearer, though I have lost dogs before (Zira and Bingo and I love them) I have never before lost a pet that I had since baby hood and that I was totally bonded with (I feel somewhat bad about it but I was never fully bonded to Zira). I am so fearful of the loss that some morning I wake up and all I can think is they are another day older. However, I know they never think about it. I am positive that even on the day they leave me I will never regret having these five dogs and 3 cats, they are after my husband, the most important things in my life and my real family far more then the humans.

urban hounds

Tucker The Crestie said...

Thanks to everyone for all the lovely comments. As much as I love these five little fur beings in my care, I know one thing for sure ... it is no more than all of you love your own animal companions. They are lucky animals to be loved so much and cared for so well, and we are all very lucky people to have these amazing creatures in our lives.

Tucker The Crestie said...

@ Zazou and Calypso, that is so sad that your first mommy passed away and you guys had to go to the shelter. But how wonderful that you found a wonderful new mommy and daddy, and that you got to stay together. On another blog we follow, House of Carnivores, the human there fosters cats quite a bit, and she recently had a SUPER success story that is similar. Four kitties (litter mates apparently) got surrendered to the shelter when their human passed away. They were just recently adopted in pairs, so at least each of them got to go to their new home with a brother or sister to comfort them and be a familiar face. Such a heartwarming story, and you can read about it here if you wish: http://houseofcarnivores.blogspot.com/2012/12/foster-success.html

2browndawgs said...

I hope you will forgive my being late visiting from the hop (was out of town :)).

What a nice post and beautiful pictures. We have a black kitty too. Black kitties, well all kitties, rule!