Funny how the need to love and nurture does not go away, even after your children are grown and gone.So we turn to our pets.  They get even more love and better care than before.  (Not that they didn't anyway.)  But you somehow love them even more and have more time to spend with them.  They become an intricate part of your daily life, without you even realizing it.  You do things for them, just as you would your children.  You can actually see the expressions on their faces and really know what they are thinking.  You can almost read their minds, and they, yours.  You get up in the middle of the night and step way out away from the bed just so you won't step on him; knowing he's laying right there beside your bed.  You get up several times in the middle of the night to let him out.  You no longer do the laundry early in the morning, as you prefer, because the noise of the washer and dryer upset him.  So you wait until after he has had his breakfast.  A thunderstorm is coming and you run outside to get him and bring him in before he gets all wet.  You vacuum the house daily because of all the furry presents he leaves you on the carpet.  You take him bye bye in the truck (or whatever vehicle) because he loves going and just being with you.  He's a beautiful animal and you're so proud of him.  But more, so much more than this.  He's your friend, confidant, soul soother and constant companion.  He asks nothing and gives so much in return.  Unconditional love and devotion he gives to you and maybe just a little jaunt once in a while, for him.  It's the "jaunt" that took our Scorpio away from us.  He ran down over the hill......his master heard the train coming and called for him.  The train, going north, blew it's whistle much longer than past the usual point and much more excitedly than ever heard before. Did I hear a yelp?  No, I'm sure it was just my imagination.  It just HAD to be my imagination!  It must have been the noise from the train.  So we waited and waited for him to come home.  Surely he would come bounding through the bushes wagging his tail with that familiar laugh on his beautiful face.  We found him lying very still in the center of the railroad tracks.  Not a mark on his freshly groomed body.  We carried him up the hill, talking to him and lovingly stroking him all the way to where we laid him to rest, in his favorite spot.  I now honestly believe that if our beloved pets' souls are waiting for us along with all our other departed loved ones, than there truely is a heaven.   

By J. Lynn Whitlock