I have mentioned that before Melvin, there was Max. He is, was and will always be my angel dog. Max taught me to relax. I only thought I knew about unconditional love, I had no idea how spectacular that type of love could be until he leapt through the front door.
When I lost him, the ache was unbearable. I could never have guessed that of all the things life could hurl, his death would be a breaking point. Losing him was a deep, raw sadness. I thought it would be that way forever.
You don’t go around grief, you have to move through it. There are no shortcuts. It is the price we pay for love. I posted before that Coldplay’s ‘Til Kingdom Come song was the song I played over and over. Yesterday was the first time since losing him that I was able to hear it and smile, the entire way through. Not a single tear. Just the opposite, I felt complete honor to have such sweet, wonderful. snuggly memories of Max flood over me and was grateful to realize how the sadness of loss can actually evolve to a joy of having had.
In time, indeed.
When my uncle died I listened to “Fix You” by Coldplay over and over. It took me years to hear it without crying.
Just the mention of “Fix You’ makes me weep!
Oh, Coldplay – I can totally relate to both of these songs, ladies. I love that you look back at your heart dog with such fond and happy memories! I have yet to lose an animal as an “adult” – meaning the ones I owned solely and did not grow up with, but it was so hard to lose my two childhood pets a few years ago. Now I think about all that they taught me and how my love for animals really started to blossom thanks to knowing them. Cheers to dogs being super awesome!
I love that your childhood pets molded you, I’m guessing you didn’t even realize they were training you! I loved my childhood dogs but I can’t recall how it felt to lose them. I either blocked it out or was too busy being a teenager… Regardless, we owe them some gratitude!