[pyrnet] Fw: Tribute to Joan

["Barb Bowes" <bamb@monmouth.com>]

IN TRIBUTE TO JOAN OF PYRANGEL

                             By Geri Bleau

The sun is shining today at the Bridge, as it always is.  But there is a
marked difference..something is about to happen...someone is coming...

There isn't a sound around.  All of the animals are still...so still you
can hear a faint sound in the distance..  The footsteps...soft gentle
steps.  The dogs lift their heads, and not a tail is waving.  The stillness
grows, but then there is an energy.  It begins to radiate, every dog can
sense it.   It grows stronger and stronger.  The closer the energy gets,
the more Certain Dogs seem to realize what the steps mean. The energy takes
the form of light.  The light grows brighter and brighter, and a sense of
warmth radiates from it.  It is some kind of Feeling.  Now there is no
mistaking it....the Certain Dogs are filled with a sense of knowledge...and
light and warmth and energy penetrate their very souls.  Some  of them
remember a time in their lives...a time before their Family came to choose
them and love them.   They remember a time in their lives when no one loved
them..no on cared about them..no one chose them.

She came into their lives.  She chose them.  She picked them up..picked up
their tired bodies, picked up their broken spirits.  She saw the beauty in
them that no one else saw.  She saw the gifts they had to offer.  When She
came along to choose them, she filled them with Hope, with Peace, with
Confidence.  When this moment in their life happened, they were suffused
with a powerful energy...one of light, of warmth.

It is She!  They realize it when the Feeling hits them, hits them with a
force.  She has finally come to be with them...and this time neither time,
nor space..not illness, not sadness will ever separate them again.  They
run to meet her...all of them.  But the ones in the very forefront are
those who never had the chance to be part of a Family...Olive,
Persephone..and others...the ones who broke her heart the most.  She fought
the valiant fight for them, but they had to pass on....

Yes, Olive and Persephone are in front, straining and eager to reach her
first...as if to say...."do not worry, look at us..we are now everything
you ever hoped and dreamed that we could be!"  They are so eager to put her
mind at rest..because they know..they know she never stopped caring, never
stopped crying, never stopped thinking about them.

They reach her...she blinks away the tears.  No one else would recognize
these two..because they are beautiful and whole and healthy.  But She knows
who they are..she recognizes their eyes, she senses their souls.  She bends
over, tears dripping, and they gently lick them away.  She crouches down
and buries her face in their soft, clean, beautiful fur.  She's home.

The line behind them stretches so far that one cannot see the end of
it.  Big white fluffy shepherd's crooks gently waving, patiently waiting
their chance to greet Momma Joan.  As they come to her, the gentle paws
rest upon her .......their eyes filled with love, with gratitude, with
happiness.  She's home.

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