My Wolf Dog Helpers

My dogs are my greatest teachers. They are my children, my friends and companions, and
my helpers. It is rare that they are not by my side.

We share a home and roam the land together. They teach me about caring for and loving them regardless of how I may be feeling myself. They are frequently a very important presence for the people who visit me for help. They teach me about presence and alertness. But they also teach me about the consequences of carelessness and recklessness. They are wild and instinctual and they get to live out this side of their nature because of the life we share. But this means they live in a far more dangerous world than backyard dogs. They suffer injuries chasing deer, rabbits, javelinas, and skunks. The skunks are most often what they catch. These injuries lead to shorter lives when they can’t walk anymore. The potential for accidental death is always present. Dogs and wolves do not live nearly as long as we do, even when they die of old age. In the last 25 years, five of my dogs have returned to being wolf spirits again.certainty that I will lose what I love, and that emptiness will visit me along with a host of feelings depending on unique story of that loss.

I have a special wall in my house with the pictures of the wolf-bear dogs who have graced my life and are now gone. Every one of these dogs has taught me in manifold ways about myself, about working with emotions, about dogs and their world. Had I not loved and cared for them I would not have experienced any of these losses. But then I would know nothing about life. They taught me to let go of my need for them, and not to hold on to them so tightly that I prevent their spirits from experiencing the full spectrum of their soul. And they taught me to go on loving, despite the certainty that I will lose what I love, and that emptiness will visit me along with a host of feelings depending on unique story of that loss.

My experiences with the dogs mirror many stories that happen in our lives as humans. These stories echo through soul time setting into motion the ancient, as well as the present, emotions. So my presence with their loss is a healing that transcends time. Without their unique living presence and their deaths, there would be no Medicine of One. They have graced and gifted me with wisdom born from experience. Experiences that sometimes brought very difficult outcomes because of my choices and mistakes.