I was telling some friends the other day—after we had our new dog, Dharma, for a week—that I couldn’t believe what the universe had manifested for me. And then later, after I left this friend, I remembered that the universe serves as a mirror to our thinking, which meant, apparently, that I (along with John) had manifested this dog without even knowing we were manifesting anything, but we are always manifesting.

 

       I am smitten and in love with Dharma (as is John, just not as overtly), with this proverbial puppy in a way that I didn’t know love could exist again after Zelda (and I’m talking dogs here), which goes to show you just how powerful love can be! Love is not something that evades us after loved ones cross, but rather, love is the driving force behind our sadness and tears that keep us churning and reaching out for the greater light of love’s understanding, that cleanses our souls so we can open up even more fully to greater love, if we can just keep our minds open for love to enter. My mind is wide open.

 

     For the past two weeks since having the girl home, I am forever desiring to be by her side, which means I am with her a lot, wrapped in a blanket of love (that, fortuitously, comes with another cold snap) just for the pleasure of being with her out of time, smelling her, cooing to her, listening to her coo to me, which is an inner sigh on contended breathing, accompanied by soft grunting that I adore! Whispering sweet everything’s into her long silky ears, stroking them with the other hand massaging her belly, still elongated with tender nipples after the rewarding experience of having the opportunity to become a mother, which all female species long to become, even if they choose not to be mothers in this lifetime. The desire to nurture is still there built into our purpose. Mission accomplished, even as the population of dogs without homes rises, just as our over population of people without love and homes rises. It is life, but one that I will never believe is fair, because it shouldn’t be this way, until one day, with peace in our lives, it won’t be. Let that day come, please, with Godspeed to see it through.

 

    Having been abandoned into a holding box at the Appleton Humane Society while pregnant in November—that the humane society wasn’t aware of because Dharma (called “under your spell” by the Humane Society) was bone thin—but even against those odds, she delivered two healthy babies who were adopted into homes after she tended to them brilliantly, they say, for two weeks at the Humane Society, and then, for the duration of the next four weeks in someone else’s laundry room. She fulfilled her task of procreating new life, even as the babies departure from her life filled her with great anxiety, she had no choice in the matter other than to continue on with her next adventure, which, one step closer, was going to live in a coon hound rescue foster home, where, for the next six weeks, on edge with high stress that warranted Prozac, she awaited our arrival.  With great relief, this beautiful and gentle dog, from the moment she encountered John (who drove two hours to fetch her), knew, at last, probably four or five years into her life that she had finally found her home, that no dog ever gives up on, even if they never find their home. Dharma, lucky dog that she is, did find her home with us, and we couldn’t be more pleased.

 

     In my mind, proud mother that I am of Dharma, she is a beauty queen of the coon hound tribe, who is perfect! In fact, she’s better than perfect. She’s the right size, small and slender, who can fit into my lap for cuddles, and who can slide easily in next to John when he’s reading on his reading couch in front of the fire. She loves to curl up in a round ball when we’re at our computers, preferably on the love seat in our office in the sun with her head tucked into her paws, kind of like me, who likes to have a blanket up around my nose when I sleep. Looking over at her now I can see that she’s settled in for a long and fulfilling life of remarkable dog and human companionship.  As my new friend, Wendy reminded me, dogs are here to teach us about our inherent nature and remind us of our origin of love. And I’ve got to say, I am all eyes and ears, watching and listening.

 

     Oh, great love for the dog that I feel when I see all my dogs, and everyone else’s dogs, especially when they’re happy. A dog in distress and need takes me under more than anything else, which is why I have to drive with blinders on. Hallelujah, thank you, universe for Dharma, even with her incessant barking that’s called baying, that hardly bothers us because it’s so happy and sweet, especially in the morning when she sees me getting dressed, knowing that it’s close to going out for our walking time, without a leash, but with a collar because she follows her nose wherever it tells her to go, which is in freedom over the ridge of our house, in whatever direction the wind blows her. Lucky for all of our dogs, and the many I take care of, they are abundant with open fields and raw nature to explore in, let the girl be free, I say. Dharma, like all dogs that have been penned up long for their liberties to explore freedom, which is the birthright of us all! In Dharma’s case, according to the perfect padding on her paws, I suspect that she’s encountering this freedom for the first time! It’s like John told her foster mother, Shelley, who said she wasn’t good at obeying commands, that it would never be a problem again, ever, because she’ll never hear another command. Not only can she be on every couch, she can even be up on the counter top between our computers knocking over books and folders, and she, like the rest of our dogs, is allowed to eat whatever and as much as she pleases, with a love for people food, no problem. She has an open door policy to go in and out on her own (with our help, of course), if she pleases, which pleases her very much, but also, there’s the added benefit in knowing that she knows her way home to the magic doors that always open up to her with love, warmth and want for her, which still amazes her, without ever having to know abandonment or the cold again.

 

     As for our other dogs, Kafka, Sparky and Nemo, they seem more settled with Dharma in their lives, too. They are happy and fine with the fact that this cute little dog has easily moved into the top dog position that used to be Zelda’s. They love her with a cautious eye, for now, as they sniff and sniff at her, probably still wondering and thinking about Zelda, like, where is she? (In the chest freezer in the basement, waiting for her burial after the ground thaws.) And how is it that this new dog, Dharma, came to be with us? She is so much like Zelda, yet so entirely uniquely her own being, because she’s Dharma! Who knows, maybe, the dogs think that Dharma’s a Zelda reincarnated, who surely must know of the spirit of these canine mysteries much more than we know about these matters, other than that they both belonged with us here on earth, as they, these fine and respectable male dogs in our lives, belong with us, too, with Dharma in charge now of carrying on the canine torch of touching our lives with her feminine loving sensibilities that enrapture us all. God willing, she’ll be with us for a long time to come. John and I feel we’re in a rich heaping rapture of dog blessings that make us feel loved and securely at home on this planet with the presence of the dog in our lives. And, now that we’re all together in a tighter knit fit with Dharma, John and I, human love of my life, are in a tighter knit fit with each other, where we’re beginning a new tradition of having Dharma sleep on my side of the bed instead of sleeping between us, with me in the middle, snuggled up with my man, who, none of this would be complete without.

 

    Hail to all dogs, and to our happiness with the dogs that we have in our lives, as we are grateful for the hearth of our home that John and I have in each other!

Home at last.