The Beginning Options

[Jake'sGrandpa]

Todd, you touch my heart. I dearly hope to meet you and Jenna and all our lightning-strike friends at the bridge one day. Bless you, my friend.

[Bobbie]

Remembering a friend...........................who has labored long and sadly
Coming to grips with the loss of his love.

With greatest admiration and respect,
Bobbie

[Bobbie]

Dearest Jenna and Friede's Dad,

God please bless you with all the glory He has...........for you have brightened my day with your words!! You, my dear friend, have the gift of weaving words into magic of thought, joy, imagination, peace and LOVE. And I am forever grateful that you share them with me....a simple Catholic grade school graduate.

Aren't Butterflies simply amazing????? They can be of great and magnificent color, schemes and designs OR as simple as the white little ones that grace my vision all the time (until the weather turns too cold and they, too, migrate to warmer seasons)!!!!! AND, they are everywhere, but one has to know what one is looking for in order to truly see them. I have seen them on greeting cards, stationery, even bathroom wallpaper. Every time they greet me I just smile in delight and say, "Hi Trevor! How are you doing, buddy? Mommy says Thank You for stopping by to greet me. I LOVE YOU, TREVOR!"

Such a delicate creature carrying such a profound message from those that we wish we could still physically touch, love and cuddle! We have our Spirits that mingle together and do these things for us But it isn't quite the same................Nothing like the feel of Jenna or Trevor or Jake or Mickey or Gretta or Rufus or Trevor's brothers. One day we will experience this touch again, in magnificent, glorious forms that we cannot even imagine. THAT is what I look forward to.

And dear Friede! How are you, my darling??? I must get to know all about you, as your daddy knows about Dreamer and Kelley. You bring such joy to your daddy and, just like your predecessor, joy and love. In the midst of our memories, we are blessed to find additional joy and love. What have we done to deserve this? It's quite simple........................loved God's creatures! Accepted them for who they are and tried to learn unconditional love from them, who already know how to do that!

What a great day it is! To again hear from an enlightened and poetic friend, who simply touches my soul with every word!! WELCOME BACK!!!

I LOVE YOU, JENNA!!!
XO Bobbie XO

[Gretta's Mom]

OH My Doxie and me

Again many thanks for the beautiful poem for Gretta and the INCREDIBLE picture. Where do you find all these amazing picture? Every one has just taken me breath away.

When life is hell, the memories and spirits of spectacular dogs are always at my feet to remind me that like they were, I am on my way to the Perfect World. And like them, even the earthly hell can't last but so long ... because they all get together and have a prayer hum for me and the load lifts for a while and just the hint of a smile comes through, It's a smile to you, Jenna's dad.

Your are in the top group of wonderful people I am thankful for on this day before the day dedicated to giving thanks - and NOT eating our friends.

May heaven pour out many blessing on you, my friend.

Gretta and Rufs's mom

[Gretta's Mom]

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Hey Peanut

There's gonna be a BIG party tonight at Rufus and Gretta's house!

7PM EST (listen for the noise if you don't know what this means)

Gather up all your friends and head on over and PARTY AS LOUD AS YOU CAN!

The party is for Trevor's mom. She had a very good report from her doctor yesterday!

Party your hearts out .... and then go to the Big Man, bow your heads and thank Him for doing that for Trevor's mom!

And just for tonight - no danger of tummy-achhes for overeating!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Gretta and Rufus's mom

[Gretta's Mom]

Oh My Doxie

Thank you SO much for the beautiful poem you wrote for mt Gretta. You alone know the depths of anguish in my heart now that the mother of my love for dogs,my precious sister Bobbie has left all her suffering behind and gone to the Perfect World to join her precious dogs, and all of the precious dogs and other animals she met both in the flesh and here on Lightning Strike. Your poetry and pictures go straight to the heart adn turn on the faucet of tears, tears for Bobbie, tears for Gretta and Rufus, tears for Jenna, tears for you, tears for everyone whose beloved has gone back to the Perfect World before them and left them holding the sadness that comes from making the most loving and courageous decision they have ever had to make - to take on all of the sorrow and loneliness it takes to set their precious loved one free of their physical suffering. Somehow I think that our babies are sad to leave us, too. But an instant later, they appear in the Perfect World where their hearts and minds and memories are instantly transformed into pure happiness - about every event in their loves and mostly about the people they loved most. They see with new eyes and new hearts - they know things as they are, as they were intended to be, as they were in the beginning = when the lion and lamb lay down together and when all species could talk in a common language.

My Doxie, I can never thank you enough for the beauty and immense caring you have given to both Bobbie and me. Your soul is already halfway into the Perfect World. Thank you for sharing it to console us that somebody DOES understand and to give us a foretaste of when the Perfect World will be like when we all get there.

Jenna, your dad is SO close to you - he is a singular person who lives in two worlds so he can speak words that go straight to our hearts and even though we dissolve in tears when we read them, we are strengthened by knowing that he truly can see ahead of us and send incredible love to use through is immensely beautiful words and pictures. No wonder you chose him to be your dad.

One step at a time into eternity - and a little duckling shall lead them.

Thank you so much, Doxie's dad. This is exactly the day your words and picture were most needed.

Gretta and Rufus's mom (and now Dreamer and Kelly's aunt)

[Gretta's Mom]

Dear Jenna's Dad

Thank you for being with Bobbie and me throughout these long years of bliss and agony. Just reading over your posts from beginning to end is a treasure. it takes me on a voyage through those years when some of our dogs and our beautiful Bobbie were still with us on this side of heaven. How short is the time that changes everything! Someday, on a faraway shore we know not where, there is a Perfect World where we shall all be reunited - in our best and most perfect forms - speaking the same language - forever and ever.

You are a vital link to those years. Please do not ever take these posts down. They are treasures without measure.

Who knew that the old people had it right when they sang about this world being but a vale of tears? And that there was a brighter world ahead. How did their words get forgotten?

Thank you from the bottom of my broken heart.

Gretta and Rufus's mom

[Gretta's Mom]

Dear Jenna's dad

Thank you for the beautiful response to my posting about my father's death. You have such a gift, a gift to see directly into the heart, and then express in your beautiful poetry. Of course the poem about the girl asking her daddy to help her and guide her brought on a vale of tears.

How amazing that you remember the Holmes Brothers!! Now I am going to look up and listen to their song from which their line that "it is all on shade of gray" comes.

The old people sing a song - and they knew of which they sang - that started "When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be." And it is true. I thought it would be marvelous when I just understood it in terms of precious spirit animals, but it became crystal clear to me when my father went to heaven. It was liked he'd decamped and moved the family headquarters - sort of like Father Abraham in the bible.

Jenna's dad, thank you for the gift of your friendship, the gift of your poetry, the gift of your caring.

The universe sings for you.

Jeanne (Gretta and Rufus's mom)

[Gretta's Mom]

Good morning Todd

I just wanted to stop by and see how things were going for you. I'm not strong enough in my heart to write a lot on LS, so I do a rotation of one person or animal in my "I-love-them" circle every day. I want to thank you for the beautiful poetry you have written for Bobbie and me over the years. it is beautiful. It is precious. It goes straight to the deepest place in my heart. Thank you for being such a talented and understanding person and such a faithful friend.

Gretta and Rufus's mom (Jeanne)

[Gretta's Mom]

Oh Todd,

What a precious new friend. You can just see it in her face in the first picture - please, PLEASE take me home. You are an angel for giving her a new life filled with fun, warmth, health, a doxie sibling - and most of all LOVE. I know another soul-mate has found you. I can tell by the way she melts into your lap. PLEASE tell me in your next message that your home has another doxie in it!!!!

How do you do it? You can read right into BObbie's and now my heart. Yes, we were so alike in heart, mind, and even body that one time someone took us for twins. And that horrible ferocious wolf with those sharp, hungry teeth ready to consume me in one bite. That's EXACTLY how I feel. But with the doxie brigade and the lab brigade and the cocker spaniel brigade and one great big sheepdog, too, and all their soul-mates forming a giant protective circle around me, maybe we can soften that wolf's heart and let him know that he, too, is loved and that he doesn't have to threaten people and scare them. Love will melt his heart, too, I just know it.

Thank you for keeping on being my friend, Todd. We, too, are soul-mates.

Jeanne (Rufus and Gretta's mom)

[Gretta's Mom]

Dear Todd

When your soul mate dog has found you and you two have lived a life of complete love, that breed of dog always has a special hold on your heart.

I want to say this to you loudly and clearly: YOU HAVE MOST DEFINITELY NOT MISSED THE MARK OF FRIENDSHIP! Your poetry has been a mighty

healing on my wounded soul so many times. And you are still doing it. That is the mark of TRUE FRIENDSHIP. When you find yourself alone, especially

when your eyes are dripping tears and your heart is downcast, it only means that you are among a tiny special few on this earth who understand about

spirit-animals and soul mates AND have experienced that life-changing love. The first doxie that you were going to adopt does have some kind of spiritual

connection to you. Maybe she was your spirit-animal in a previous life and came to tell you in person that he was OK. Maybe this incarnation is a practice

run for the incarnation in which he will be your true soul mate. Or maybe, just maybe, he is the reincarnation of a departed soul-mate, again come to see

you in person because he saw your downcast spirit and wanted to hold you just to tell you that someday you two would be reunited forever.

Rocky, Rocky-Pocky, Rock-and-Roll - he has found you. Your family has grown and all of your hearts have enlarged to make room for another soul.

And that is the mark of true love.

Your poetry and pictures have cured my soul uncountable times. You have a gift - the gift of finding EXACTLY the right word and EXACTLY the right picture not only to

express yourself but also to go straight to the center of my heart and bring a shining star.

Thank you without measure for the gift of your friendship - we, too, are soul mates.

Gretta and Rufus's mom

[Gretta's Mom]

My Doxie and Me.

Once again you poetry has gone straight to the inside of my heart.
It thanks you for remembering Bobbie and Gretta and Rufus. Only those that truly loved these beings,
whether from near or far away, will remember them.
Only those who heart they touched will remember them.
Buried deep in my heart, right along with them
Is a little brown dog, a long-ish dog with short-ish legs
Legs moving like a dervish to keep up with her loved one.
Who is now able to keep up with everyone ... in the Perfect World.
Now the man and the dog have a hole in their hearts
That can only be filled by a brother or a sister
One who is also long and brown and, most of all, loving.
He or she is on the way. This special dog is looking for his one and only perfect family.
You will meet. You will meet.

[Gretta's Mom]

Good morning my dear friend, My Doxie

How can I thank you enough for your exquisite poetry in response to my two posts. Again I say, your word go directly to the very center of my heart and even though I am the saddest I have ever been, they somehow comfort my heart. They are like tiny beads of precious water on my thirsty soul. You remember Gretta with exactly what I have just written about in a post. You remember Rufus, my Big Black Dog.

And you are the one who has Bobbie and Trevor in your heart more than anyone else on earth except maybe me.

Todd, you are a miracle. You are a blessing straight from God to Bobbie and me. Life is SO sweet for just an instant and then it turns bitter. We look for our precious one who have gone to their true home and the pain almost kills us. Precious, beautiful messages like yours tell me there is at least one person on this earth who understands what this all means. Every time I see a post from you, I know it will be breathtaking.

Now, with my very engineer-like words, I will ask you .... Has your spirit dog found you? Has he or she arrived at your house or is he or she still on the way? There is a doxie who is carrying the empty piece of your heart and he is ON THE WAY. It's a promise.

Thank you for being my earthly soulmate.

Jeanne (Gretta and Rufus's mom)

[Gretta's Mom]

Dear My Doxie

How can you know and say the inner part of my heart? A tear is falling down my cheek for all the sadness in both our hearts. May today be the day that the precious puppy that Free is sending you finally finds you and you find him or her and both of your hearts cry tears of relief and love.

Everybody is gone now - Bobbie, my dad, Gretta, Rufus, my friends, my home, the paths I used to walk down with Gretta and then with Rufus. Here I am in a new city I thought I would love because the sister I love was here and my work life was over and we could be together. And then cancer took her away and a cyclone of grief fled me into a world I don't know. Beautiful ancient red brick structures all around that I once loved before I found out how fleeting life is and how barren it is without one dog and one person to love.

In a few days I'll make my fourth rent payment on this red brick apartment house that has never become a home - just a place with things in it that I recognize are mine and a lot that came from Stan's house - extra things that he didn't need. I feel like an extra person that nobody needs. Only eight more payments until I can move to a place where I can have a dog of my own. My Doxie, you and I are people whose hearts shrivel and dry when there is no spirit dog around to give us life. Let us make a pledge to over the ears of our hearts and listen to the tiny message on the wind that signals the existence of our soul mates in search of us.

Maybe they are walking paw-in-paw together as they approach nearer and nearer to us - and they are yet too far away on the path to us for us to be able to hear them. But they are there. And they started out on their journey because they heard our hearts crying and knew it was time to leave their homes to search for us. THEY and the ones who make a home for us, not we for them. Thank you Great Spirit for creating a species to complete our own.

And thank you so much, Doxie, for making donations in Bobbie's name to good places that rescue dogs and help creatures without a home survive until they find one. Maybe one of them is looking for one of us right now.

Jeanne (Gretta and Rufus's mom)

[Gretta's Mom]

Oh My Doxie

How you remember and speak the words I would say if they would come to me Your words have soothed my heart so many times. You are right. Not everybody is gone. You are not gone and you are my soul/s best doctor. You understand how the tears of life must fall because the garden of your life has been watered by them and some beautiful flowers have grown there.

When you told me about the pit puppy who was available for adoption I immediately felt that s/he was your searcher. Of course I know the entire breed of doxies has adopted you as a member and a relative. In fact, I think I heard Rufus saying something about a white pit bull friend of his having a grandfather named Todd and a GREAT bull dog having a grandfather named Gabe. Rufus's grandfather is with him now. His grandfather loved him so much. He marvelled at how Rufus could sit up so straight for so long in a sphynx pose just like the lions who guarded the Egyptian pyramids.

I made a mistake and listened to other people who thought they could give me "advice" on how to live. They were all telling me that I needed to get out of Bobbie's house and into my own place. I moved too fast and signed a lease that forbade ANY animals. And I live 38 stairs above ground level. Any dog of any age would have trouble with the stairs. So this is my "House of learning." Grown-ups have to go to school, too. The Good Shepherd is getting my heart ready for a beautiful animal to love. I am in boarding school now, just like I was in grades 9 and 10 (and, with 11 others got expelled for "contaminating the school" with free thinking). I'll graduate in 8 months and along about month 5 or 6 I'll start looking for a new neighborhood and a new house - one that welcomes animals.

Thank you, Doxie, for soothing my heart with your beautiful poems and even more with the PICTURES! Please keep me up on which dog is trying to find his or her way to your heart.

A fellow traveller

Rufus and Gretta's

[Gretta's Mom]

Oh My Doxie,

Another beautiful poetic and visual outpouring. I have to caution you about fostering. Before you do it, look into your heart and into the heart of your soulmate and ask yourself whether either or both of you can withstand the heartache of separation when a foster dog gets adopted. Many fosters are so-called "foster failures" because they end up adopting the animal they are fostering. Of course this is said in irony because everyone involved knows that what really happened is triumph of love.

It does break our hearts that we can't save all the animal who need us. If we were a rich as the guy whose tourist space plane just crashed, we could scoop them all up and buy a state - like Kentucky - and every one of them would have loving homes. But I can't and you can't. So don't let your heart swim in regret at the ones you have to leave behind. Know in your heart that the one you choose is the one you are meant to have.

The best post I can imagine from you is one telling me that you have a new doxie to love.

Gretta and Rufus bark encouraging words into your ears.

Jeanne

[Gretta's Mom]

Good morning, My Doxie

I tried to send you a post yesterday but the spirits weren't with me and the message kept erasing itself. So I'm hoping today it will get through.

RUN, don't WALK, to the adoption center and take home the beautiful Pittie you've sent pictures of or another dog who catches your heart.

You have completely changed my mind about fostering. It IS a blessing to both a dog and yourself to give a caged dog a good, loving life right that day. no matter how long it lasts. Then, if you need to send him or her on to another loving forever home, you will have saved him from the days he would otherwise have spent in the miserable cage in the shelter. And if you find he or she is meant for you, one who is sent from the universe, then you two have found each other and can live together in your home - which IS his forever home.

You have such a loving heart, How could I have said something that would have made you hold back and be cautious. You have taught me that love is NOT timid or cautious - it is wise.

Please forgive me and let the word come to me soon that you have taken your next dog-meant-for-you into your home and your heart.

Gretta and Rufus's mom, Jeanne

[Gretta's Mom]

Dear Todd,

Thank you for another incredible poem. You have travelled a huge and painful circle and have come back to where it started: your heart is healed through the love of the people and dogs who love you and now you are joyous enough to again give of your beautiful heart to not one but two beautiful doxies. And you know that this was the work of Jenna on your broken heart and the love of your true friends human and canine.

It is only the end of your endless suffering. It is the beginning of your life of joy and happiness and love.

Gretta and Rufus's mom

[Jon730]

I do not think I have ever seen a more beautiful thread on here.

[Gretta's Mom]

Jon 730 - I totally agree. My Doxie and Me writes the most beautiful poetry and finds the most exquisite pictures to go with it. He has helped me through the loss of two dogs and a younger sister, my best friend and most loved person on earth.