FurHeads.com Pack Leader Blog

A shelter in Marion, IN will be closing it’s doors on or around the end of June. Any animals remaining at the shelter on the day they close, will be euthanized. This is an absolute tragedy and we should not stand for it.

I am encouraging all my readers to look at this link (also located at the bottom of this post), check out the biographies of the pets available there. Maybe you know someone who has been looking for the right dog – this is the perfect opportunity!!

There are many different breeds and ages still waiting to be adopted.

Continued on… PetStrong’s Blog

If you read my blog here on FurHeads.com and have looked through my products, you can probably tell I’m a “dog person.”  The whole reason these products exist in the first place is purely from searching for something to make my own Molly pup feel better.  I tried very hard to create products for felines and equines, and am working on products for other animals, but Dogs truly hold my heart.

In trying to share with others the place that Dogs hold in my life, I often stumble with the words and can’t really express reality.  I get partially there, but the words I use, no matter how true and correct, simply don’t do the feelings justice.   Someone else also tried to share their feelings with the world about their Dogs, which I’ve placed below my own musings about Dogs.  Where the author did a good job, I get the feeling that even this noble effort to express the remarkable place a Dog holds in the life of a “Dog Person” is just not quite there.  If the right words and combination of syllables really did form, everyone I spoke the words to would instantly become a “Dog Person” purely to feel, first hand, the limitlessness in every feeling that is felt when expressed to and from a Dog.  Some day, perhaps, I’ll find the right combination of words to share who Dog is in my life and why they hold that place.  Until then, I’ll have to stumble through some more and be content in my own love for Dogs, regardless of how badly I’d love to share the love.

I recently received this in email, and the author is marked as anonymous.  If you know who the author is, please ask them to contact me and I’ll credit this wonderful piece of heartfelt documentation properly.

It’s Just a Dog

From time to time people tell me, “Lighten up, it’s just a dog,” or, “That’s a lot of money for just a dog.” They don’t understand the distance traveled, the time spent or the costs involved for “just a dog.” Some of my proudest moments have come about with “just a dog.”

Many hours have passed and my only company was “just a dog,” but I did not once feel slighted. Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by “just a dog,” and, in those days of darkness, the gentle touch of “just a dog” gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day. If you, too, think it’s “just a dog,” then you will probably understand phases like “just a friend,” “just a sunrise,” or “just a promise.”

“Just a dog” brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust, and pure unbridled joy. “Just a dog” brings out the compassion and patience that makes me a better person. Because of “just a dog” I will rise early, take long walks and look longingly to the future.

So for me, and folks like me, it’s not “just a dog” but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future, the fond memories of the past and the pure joy of the moment. “Just a dog” brings out what’s good in me and diverts my thoughts away from myself and the worries of the day. I hope that someday they can understand that it’s not “just a dog” but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being “just a human.”

So the next time you hear the phrase “just a dog.” just smile…. because they “just don’t understand.”

- Anonymous

Thanksgiving is typically a time for humans to consider what they have and silently (or not-so-silently, if you have a blog) give thanks for that what ever it is being in our lives. Lots of people start off listing their family members, then they are thankful for jobs, cars, money, and things.

Then, when I ask them if they have an animal sharing their lives, they look at me and say something to the tune of, “Oh, yah. And my dog [or] cat. I like my dog [or] cat.” But it seems to me that, especially from the space of forgetfulness that their memory of their Animal Companion resides, they aren’t truly thankful for the animal in their life.

In fact, I wonder why the animal was invited into their lives in the first place, since they seem to have lost the message the animal had for them. Or, maybe they just couldn’t see the message, as it was too …something.

I decided to do a search to see just how helpful our Dogs are. I know there are dogs who help people who have physical difficulties like blindness and deafness. But did you know they can smell when a seizure is coming on? My Mom’s dog, our Lady Bug, used to alert us to the fact that my niece and nephew’s mom, SRHD, was going to go into an epileptic seizure when SRHD was pregnant with the two kids. We (Mom, Pa, and I) were able to get SRHD to a safe place and then, sure enough, she would experience a a full blown grande mal seizure. Moe was accurate within about 5 minutes of when one was going to happen, too!

Just go out to any search engine and type “dog saves” into the search and see what you come up with. For instance, Clusty.com lists things like dogs saving abandoned babies, rescuing a man from a fire (and losing their own life in the process), there’s even a story of a dog giving a modified Heimlich manuever!

Cats, too, are quite remarkable about saving their humans on a regular basis. One cat even saved it’s family from carbon monoxide poisoning!

Of course, there’s all the dogs who are “trained” to sniff out drugs, heart attacks, epileptic seizures, low blood sugar, high blood sugar, migraines and a host of other things that, in reality, the dog trained the humans to recognize that the dog already knew! Then the humans turned around and “trained” the dog by gifting them with treats each time they sniffed out the search item correctly.

So, I’d like to take a few moments and really THANK all the Animals for saving so many lives, for caring for their humans, for showing us how to love unconditionally, for being wonderful additions to each of our lives.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For the longest time now, I’ve wondered, and even come to accept a little bit, if I’m the only one in the whole world who has almost a spiritual reverence for Animals (Dogs, mostly), as I do. The internet is a grand place, and I’ve found someone who not only feels this way, but is able to express it with a fortitude and elegance that I’ve not yet been able to attain. The article on beliefnet.com, Shaking Paws with the Infinite, by Jean Houston, gives a tantalizing introduction to her book, Mystical Dogs: Animals as Guides to Our Inner Life.

Her book title really says what I’ve been trying to express for years now – Animals are Guides to us. If we would just observe the lessons they try so hard to teach us, we would be so much better off! They even try to teach us the best way (supposedly), by example. They are the most purely full of life, part of life and yet individuals, too. They show us how to play and help us recall our imaginations, entice us to just LIVE and BE. They enjoy a good nap when they’re tired and don’t worry about what time it is. They are brave, patient, and have the real key to true, unadulterated, pure love. They love without need of being loved in return, even.

Animals show us a mirror of ourselves as we should be, as we naturally want to be. The mirror we look into still holds all those society requirements, but the one our Animal Friends hold for us show us as we intended to be.

This was emailed to me, but I didn’t want to lose it, or the message:

This is one of the kindest things I’ve ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a kind soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service…

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could, so she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope Because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter

Yes. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, “To Meredith” in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, “When a Pet Dies.” Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn’t sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays In your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don’t need our bodies in heaven, I don’t have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I am wherever there is love.

Love, God

I was out looking at some of my favorite sites and came across a beautiful article that shows just what an intergral part of our human lives our Dogs are. The article, Never Alone, is the account of a woman coming to terms with the beginning stages of Alzhiemer’s. That’s a terrifying dis-ease, but here is one case of what appears to be a clear communication from her Dog to her.  This looks like one soul speaking to another, consoling it, soothing it, sharing the sorrow, and ultimately, leading the hurting soul to find a healing place – just by being a Dog.

I really believe that Dog is the reverse of God for a reason – it gives the Creator-Being a “back door” so to speak to remind humans of Creator’s innate goodness.  The “back door” is the unconditional pure love a human soul accepts from a trusted Animal Companion.