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We said goodbye to Maya, our beloved, beautiful rescue Boston Terrier, on Thursday, July 20. A very hard day. She will never be forgotten.

We are in agreement that we have never had a more loving and loveable dog, and heaven knows we’ve had many, many of them over the years, the decades. Her coming brought joy; her leaving brought tears.

There’s a plaque in our kitchen that says, “Heaven’s the place where all the dogs you’ve ever loved come to greet you.” May that be so.

And now, our Maya has met old friends, and made new ones.

The Mahatma Gandhi said, “The moral development of a society can be judged by the way it treats its animals.” Will Rogers said, “I do not know where dogs go when they die but wherever it is I want to go there.”

There are some folks, though, who just don’t seem to have that which I call the inner core of caring, of tenderness, of empathy.

During Maya’s decline and inexorable descent into the mental wilderness of dementia, our precious rescue Chihuahua, Ellie, knew things were not right. She acted differently. Then when her “sister” Maya had to leave us Ellie acted notably different. Sad. This we could tell.

Please let me also add that we truly care for cats. There have been very few times when we have not had cats in our family. Emphasis on plural.

Each cat has her or his own personality. They have brought joy to us, and continue to do so. Losing our feline friends is very hard too. Very.

Loving someone, or/and an animal one has loved and been loved by, truly has emotional and health benefits. It enriches one’s journey.

The animal shelters everywhere have staggering numbers of dogs and cats whose lives depend upon being adopted. Older dogs are not adopted nearly as often as younger ones. Same for cats, too.

Pets place responsibilities upon us, to include financial ones, and the need on occasions to alter lifestyles a bit. The tradeoff for so doing is worth it. More so than non-pet owners probably realize or understand.

“All creatures great and small. The Lord God made them all.”

Amen.