It’s that time again–the anniversary of releasing my beloved Maddie. I get (ok, more than) a little soft and tearful, since he was such an enormous part of my life.
I’m sometimes shocked at how the memories flood in and some just make me laugh out loud while others make the grief rise up in a wave that threatens my heart.
So, to connect and release this emotional energy, I’ve been carrying around one of my favorite TouchStones that I made with his ashes.
It’s created from a beautiful green transparent glass, with the ashes swirling beneath and I personalized it with a sweet paw print, added in Fire Lotus glass on the one side. The subtle bumps from the paw print are really quite soothing to rub!
The green glass reminds me of all the fabulous runs we had in the hills near my home, and the paw? Well, the paw print is very special, for lots of reasons. He seemed to get injured on just that one part of his body, but I know it was because we did a whole lot of miles. He always let me doctor him up and was fine.
Until that one cold day when I was dressed to go skiing and was just taking him for a quick energy run. I started to notice these spots…they kept getting bigger and more frequent until I finally realized they were blood and obviously from Maddie! Holy xxxx!
He had one horrific cut by some fool’s trash, slicing open a main vein and really scaring me with the blood loss. Luckily a gal I knew from work happened to come by the park and she helped a great deal, maybe even saving his life. We managed to get him to the vet and into surgery right away. A big shout out to Teresa, and all the other people like her who help when they see an animal in distress or needing help.
He survived this nasty wound to his paw by some kind and wonderful care from Dr. Ditsworth at Kings Row Pet Hospital, and went on to hike many more miles with me for which I am grateful.
So now you know why I appreciate the gentle and loving reminder I have each time I feel it in my pocket–and why it always makes me smile too.
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