the wheel is turning...

the day started like any other...Porter awoke bright and early and was smiling from the moment his eyes opened in the morning. I sensed something a bit off in the air as I stumbled around my bedroom, changing Porter's diaper and eventually going downstairs. I had heard Kelly, my mom's dog (although originally brought into the family via my sister's first real boyfriend...she was and will always be my mom's dog) a couple of times during the previous night, yelping out in pain, and just knew something wasn't quite right. My mom came downstairs after about 15 minutes of Porter shouting about and basically managing to wake up the whole household, and said it was a rough night. She thought Kelly had a couple of strokes during the night. My mom seemed really distraught, and saddened, and just worn out. Kelly has been a huge part of her life for nearly 13 years now, and although we've known for awhile that she was getting old for a dog of her breed (cocker spaniel), death always come as a shock, even when you are prepared for it. Kelly was having a hard time breathing and walking and seemed in pain unless she was lying down. It is hard to watch any animal struggle through something like this, and it equally as hard to watch my mom struggle through it and to also see my mom's other dog struggle through it all as well. Later on in the day, while Mom and Dad were at church, Kelly died. She went peacefully, I think her heart just stopped.

It is hard to really capture in words just how amazing it is that an animal can become such a part of your family. The only way I guess I can even come close to explaining it is this. It is my humble opinion that there is definitely reincarnation. There are definitely parts of animals' that are not animalistic, but very humanistic. This was the case in Kelly. Kelly, I believe, was a great Italian female opera singer in a former life. She would just howl along with a female opera singer whenever she heard one. I've never seen a dog react quite like she did. She also had a great love for all Italian foods. Maybe its silly to think, but I just cannot see it any other way. This wasn't her first life, and it certainly won't be her last.

As Robert Hunter wrote (set to the music of the Grateful Dead)...
"The wheel is turning
and you can't slow down
You can't let go
and you can't hold on
You can't go back
and you can't stand still"

the wheel of life keeps turning...endless cycles of rebirth...I just wonder if I'll ever run into Kelly's soul again sometime in another world at another time...something tells me I just might.