Farewell Penny ….. to love is to live
About a year and a half ago we were blessed as a family to home 2 beautiful Beagles, 12 month old sisters from the same litter. We were besides ourselves with excitement as we had wanted for a long time to have a dog and suddenly had two. We whole heartedly welcomed Coco and Penny into our family and our home. They settled so well and we were all happy together. Immediately we noticed their different personalities. Penny the smaller of the two, was little miss independent and always up to mischief! Coco the bigger one and a softie, loved to be cuddled, sensitive and anxious when travelling. They became a huge part of our family life and we learned to love them dearly. However, they often caused us distress as they would by nature pick up a scent and sometimes escape from the garden. Penny of course was the culprit, she would run, skip, sniff for miles and come home with Coco shivering behind her burnt out, carrying the guilt for the two of them!
Over the last few months we had finally cracked all escape routes and they hadn’t run off for quite a while. Well …. last weekend as my husband took them on their regular morning walk to the beach, they ran off again! He waited all day and searched tentatively for them, low and behold a phone call came as the night began to fall …. Poor Penny was run over and died instantly. We were all heartbroken with this devastating news. Coco thankfully was found safely hiding behind the bushes near the accident. We were totally grateful to the driver for contacting us and giving us the opportunity to bring our wee party girl Penny home to rest in the garden. She served our family in so many ways. She entertained us with her cheeky antics, refusing to sit but pretending to scratch and then sit in the process, jumping to higher ground and teasing her sister and running like lightning when off the lead. Even now I sense her rapidly leaping from rainbow to rainbow.
The sadness of loosing her has united us as a family as we tenderly keep an eye on each other to see how we’re coping. These wee fur babies are so important in our lives and it’s the risk we take when we choose to have a pet and choose to love in life. But as the old saying goes, not to love is not to live. The beauty of sadness is to witness the enormity of all the emotions, particularly as our 10 year old daughter sobbed and then a few hours later as we recounted stories about Penny, she laughed out in and expressed herself in a way I had never witnessed before. It reminds me of the healing workshops I facilitate, when we give ourselves permission to feel the enormity of sadness, joy intensifies also. Thank you Penny for the fun, unconditional love and wonderful healing gift you have given us. The children’s opportunity to experience grief in a safe space. The emotional challenge to replace sadness and fear with courage and gratitude. We miss you dearly but your memory will always be in our hearts and Penny’s garden is going to be really something when the job is complete! For now we continue to hold space for one another and love and take care of your sister Coco. She is doing just fine and is not off her food any way ….
Have fun over the rainbow Penny
