A beautiful death in our four legged family

Animals seem to have a much more pragmatic approach to death than us humans – and in my communication work I think I have caught their ease about the subject.

(Actually, I had a very clear glimpse one day of where we go as we die, when I was helping my father in law have an easy death – and THAT is a major reason for my pragmatism – but that is a story for another day…)

So if you are likely to feel offended or saddened by me talking with such ease about death then I recommend that you skip this article.

You wouldn’t believe the beautiful afternoon I spent yesterday helping a friend’s best friend end this life.

I arrived there to do a healing session and the first thing Tahiti does is look me in the eye and say “It’s time”.  Very loudly, very clearly – no room for misunderstanding.

Well – old Peppi here at our place has been saying variations of “It’s time” now for about six months – so I get that a horse’s idea of “It’s time” can be quite different to our human idea.  HIS owner has come twice at his request, hot footing it two and a half hours each way to dawdle at a non existent death bed.  It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.  I have noticed that sometimes animals give their people plenty of time to say their goodbyes and come to terms with it.

So I explained all that to Donna.

Then I asked her to listen inside  and she felt how contented Tahiti felt about it being time.  (Donna is on Fast Track to brilliant Riding and did a clinic here a few weeks ago so she knows how to do that and has had plenty of practice.)

This was a beautiful, comfortable, contented, warm feeling that he had about her knowing that he was dying soon – I was there in that feeling with them and it was simply beautiful.

Then Donna turned to me and said “Oh my god he wants me to make the phone call now.”   So we went in again, listening inside ourselves, staying open to anything that he had to say – and then we got a flash of insight together.

Donna had been telling me that something peculiar had happened a couple of days earlier that had prompted her to call me for the healing work.  Her other two horses were standing either side of Tahiti as if they were helping him to stand up – as if they were stopping him from falling over.

A few months earlier Tahiti had gotten down and couldn’t get up and Donna had had to help him to his feet.  We had put him on minerals for his arthritis and he had had a very nice quality of life with almost no lameness for the last few months.

The insight that I got was that Tahiti wanted to go now – helped out of this life – because he didn’t want to fall down and die that way.

So Donna went inside and made the call.  Then she came out with a pocket stuffed with sweet things that Tahiti normally wouldn’t usually be allowed to eat much of because of his weight and took him on a tour of the garden eating all the best things, listening inside and enjoying the energy and remembering all the wonderful times they had together.  She’s a tiny little thing and he even invited her on his back for a quiet sit and commune as they said their goodbyes.  I happened to glance up at that moment and was moved by the beauty of that energy too.

I was sitting in the warm in the car, meditating and “holding space ” for them at this special time in their lives.  For those who aren’t familiar with the term “holding space”, it means that I have come to terms with whatever feelings I have about what is happening and am in a joyful, peaceful place that can help anchor someone else while they go through their stuff.

Then a very efficient man arrived and even so, we were all still in this beauitful place, anchored in Tahiti’s beautiful, contented and very knowing of what was happening, energy.

And because Donna wasn’t quite sure  how she was going to go – I held Tahiti’s lead rope with my heart wide open and singing and Donna standing beside me in a similar space and the very efficient man did his very efficient job and Tahiti was instantly gone.

Except was he?

Because we could so clearly feel his spirit released and joyful around us.  I haven’t spoken to Donna today – but I expect that he’s still gambollng around the house and will be for a little while at least – although I have known some that have hung around for a long time.

What an absolute gift it is – what a deep all the way to your bones comfort there is in knowing it is EXACTLY the right time.  What a gift it is to find that deep sense of peacefulness and to be able to hold that so that HE too had that deep sense of peacefulness as he went – with not even a split second of anything else.

We were blessed yesterday by a horse…