I got a call last week, asking if I wanted a chance to say good bye.  Spirit’s health was failing and his mom had tearfully decided that is was his “time”.

I thought back to the day I’d first said hello to this timid creature. On that day, someone else had decided it was his “time”.  A large black dog, he refused to eat or come out of the back of his kennel. He didn’t growl or menace. He simply trembled and pushed himself hard into the kennel walls. I had come to the shelter that day, having signed up with a local rescue group to meet my first foster, a young shepherd mix with an energy level I thought would match that of my 2 year old golden. On my way to the shelter, they had called to say that there was a potential adoptive family coming to meet the shepherd and they might not need me. Almost 45 minutes into the hour trek to the shelter, I decided to go anyway, just in case it didn’t work out.

It was while I was waiting that I met Spirit. Well actually, at first, I only met two brown terrified eyes which simply pulled me in by my soul. With time to waste, I sat down sideways next to the kennel gate. “Don’t try too hard”, I told myself, “it will scare him more”. I traced Continue reading »