{"id":2951,"date":"2011-09-15T01:40:53","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T08:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/?p=2951"},"modified":"2011-09-15T01:40:53","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T08:40:53","slug":"i-am-sorry-to-bother-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/i-am-sorry-to-bother-you\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am Sorry To Bother You"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dear God,<\/p>\n

I am sorry to bother you with a question that\u00a0may appear silly to you.<\/p>\n

The question is this: Is it okay to love a dog\u00a0more than you do a human being? The reason I\u00a0ask this is simple. Dogs have always been my\u00a0very best friends.<\/p>\n

As a youngster I was shunted into the background\u00a0as my parents divorced and then remarried.<\/p>\n

I was the excess baggage disposed of by\u00a0being sent to a boarding school. I had friends,\u00a0of course and as I was thrust into my teens, I\u00a0found myself with that indescribable fascination\u00a0of ‘puppy love’ which is probably more a drive\u00a0of testosterone than emotions of the heart.<\/p>\n

Romances both fleeting and permanent held\u00a0me within their embrace. Death raised its ugly\u00a0face both in the army and on the home front.<\/p>\n

Eventually, my parents were whisked off this\u00a0mortal coil, as well. The darkness of loss\u00a0dimmed the sunshine of day temporarily.<\/p>\n

However, it didn’t compare to the excruciating\u00a0loss I felt when my beloved dog Laddie succumbed\u00a0to sickness and old age.<\/p>\n

He was followed by more than twenty other\u00a0beloved dogs and cats at whose death I felt my\u00a0being encased in misery. I loved them all but, of\u00a0course, some more than others. The last loss of\u00a0a pet has been the greatest sorrow of all.<\/p>\n

I only had my little Cairn terrier Hijack for\u00a014 months. He was old when I first met him at\u00a0the local dog shelter. He was outside the building\u00a0with a trainer when, upon seeing me, leaped\u00a0up and snuggled against my chest. “That’s odd”\u00a0remarked the trainer, “he usually isn’t that\u00a0friendly.”<\/p>\n

To skim the details briefly: Hijack was\u00a0given to me for no charge and he was old, abandoned\u00a0and in poor health. Never have I felt the\u00a0immediate, all-embracing love that enraptured\u00a0us both. It seemed as if we had been together\u00a0since his being a puppy. He utterly worshiped\u00a0me as I did him.<\/p>\n

We were blessed with being together for 14\u00a0months. Every moment of it was bliss although\u00a0many hours were spent at the Veterinarians’\u00a0attending to inflammation and weak kidneys.<\/p>\n

One afternoon he simply collapsed. I rushed\u00a0him to the Vet and was told there wasn’t much\u00a0hope.<\/p>\n

I clung to any semblance of recovery and\u00a0was allowed to crawl into his cage in the animal\u00a0hospital where I held him and told him of my\u00a0love for an hour each day. He clung to life for\u00a0six days which came to a shuddering end when\u00a0the Vet phoned early one morning to say that he\u00a0was sorry.<\/p>\n

The tears flowed for three days. The sense\u00a0of loss was indescribable. I was in abject misery.<\/p>\n

Never before has such a hopeless sense of\u00a0loss engulfed me.<\/p>\n

A year has passed since Hijack\u00a0died. He still is entwined in every fibre of my\u00a0memories. I miss him so very much. Once\u00a0again, dear God, I raise the question: Is it right\u00a0to love and miss a dog more than our human\u00a0brethren?<\/p>\n

If the answer is no I guess I’m in trouble.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/h3>\n

A Pet Bereavement\u00a0Resource:<\/h3>\n

Canadian Centre for Pet Loss Bereavement<\/p>\n

www.petlosssupport.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” — Anatole France<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update:<\/h3>\n

Walle, a Chihuahua\/Cairn Terrier mix, \u00a0rescued from L.A. California by SAFE AT LAST RESCUE, <\/strong>has now found his forever home with Mike Harvey. They even share a\u00a0birth-date\u00a0, April 26th. (We think Hijack helped bring them together.) We wish them many happy years together full of love.<\/p>\n

Mike Harvey Bio:<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike is 85 years old, has been fighting cancer for more than 30, but is still able to walk dogs on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Back to <\/strong>Stories<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear God, I am sorry to bother you with a question that\u00a0may appear silly to you. The question is this: Is it okay to love a dog\u00a0more than you do a human being? The reason I\u00a0ask this is simple. Dogs have always been my\u00a0very best friends. As a youngster I was shunted into the background\u00a0as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,29,7],"tags":[13,15,131,14],"class_list":["post-2951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-companion","category-loss","category-relationships","tag-animal","tag-companion","tag-loss","tag-pets"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":22033,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}