How to show love to your dog: Be present

Dec 8

Let’s talk about the power of presence means to pets, especially as they near the end of life.

Plus: a poem written by a Cocker Spaniel named Sunny, on what the power of presence means to the animals especially as they near the end of life.

Listen along here….

Hello Dear Intuitive One

Talking with animals for a living, I’m regularly blown away at the power of cross species conversations and the wisdom that surfaces when animals have the chance to voice how they feel about the world.

There’s no one example more powerful than what’s held in a file of poems I keep in my desk drawer, that were written in a series of conversations with Sunny, a curly, chocolate Cocker Spaniel.

I keep my client’s identity and session information confidential, but Sunny was my grandmother’s, and she gave full permission to share his poems and our conversations.

I was just starting to offer animal communication sessions at the point I started talking with Sunny the Cocker Spaniel. My Grandmother wanted to better understand how to support him in his senior years and, to her surprise, he wanted help to know how to support her through the difficulty of his inevitable passing.

Even Sunny, the Cocker Spaniel knew that humans don’t have a lot of space and support to navigate the hardship of outliving our beloved animal friends and he didn’t want my Grandmother to have to face it alone.

Back in those days, I hand wrote out the whole conversation that I had with each animal, and as it turns out, Sunny the Cocker Spaniel was a poet. Each conversation we had, epic poems flowed from him, something profoundly unique, and something I’ve not experienced with another animal since.

There’s a poem in the folder I’d love to share with you that speaks volumes for the importance of being present with and for our animal friends.

The poem came from a conversation with Sunny at a point in his life when he was wavering between eating and not, sleeping for days and having bursts of energy, and my grandmother was calling every few weeks asking me to ask him the BIG question, IF he was ready to go.

Here's the poem (Tear jerker alert.)

The Dance

I can go-when I am ready

I am not ready yet.

With all of this talk about dying and death

please remember

there is still joy in each breath

even at the end – or close enough.

The grace comes when we dance

letting our feet flow in the rhythm

of life and living.

For when we anticipate the end of the song

too long before it is over

the singing will be missed and

Joy would be lost.

Each day is a gift - take pride in what

we’ve still got

for when the music does end

we will always remember and have

the joy of our dance.

~ Sunny The Cocker Spaniel 2/11/09

Image: Sunny The Poem writing Cocker Spaniel in his prime. Back in his day he was a master of stealing veggies out of the garden. Here he is caught in the act running off with what looks like a pretty large turnip!

The power of meeting animal friends with your full presence

Being present for us humans is a hard thing to do, especially as our animals age.

We spend SO much of our time trying to get ahead of it all, to know what’s coming, what we can expect and how to plan for it. And yet, in sessions, more often than not, when animals are asked what they want from us to be happier, animals ask for MORE presence from their humans.

When they come in and sit on our keyboards, when they throw themselves at our feet, and when they follow us around the house as watchful little helpers as we clean and tidy. They want us to meet them with our presence; they crave it.

So rather than a guided ceremony or mediation for this post, I’d love to give you a little homework instead….

Practice being 10% more present with your animal friends this month.

As you do, let the loving safe space of your relationship with them be a place to practice presence. Perhaps even ask your animal familiars to teach you how to be more present with them, as they are such masters of presence.

The gift of presence is a gift you can give your animals this holiday that will outlive any stocking stuffer toys and holiday chew bones. Your presence is a gift that will strengthen your memories, memories that you will each have forever.

And… if you’re between pets, practice being 10% more present with your houseplants, or your favorite tree friend you can see from your window, because not only is presence good for animals, it’s a fantastic stress reliever for