We wish to express our very deep and sincere thank you to each one of you who sent us such loving words of comfort and beautiful thoughtful cards. I
experienced with many of you the passage of your beloved pets, and some wrote to tell me of experiences with the loss of other pets I did not know personally. In each case, I am reminded of the universal emotions of Love and Grief - and of our empathetic sharing in times like these. A dear friend of mine, who is a holistic veterinarian in L.A., sent me a poem he had written years ago for a friend grieving a loss. I am sharing it with you now for all of our collective experiences. In print, the poem forms an arrow pointing up.

Breathe

Breathe.
Breathe me in.
Hold me for a while.
Let the smell of me linger,
And bring a gentle smile.

Let me go.
Feel the breath pass from your lungs.
Where have I gone?
No evidence of me remains,
But I am not gone.

Feel me in the wind.
See me in the grass
That cushions your feet,
And softens your fall.
I am here still.

We do not own the breath,
But keep it for a moment,
And set it free again.
Briefly the scent lingers,
And wind brushes our face.

Breathe me in,
Let the wind dry your tears,
And let the smell of me,
Bring a smile to your lips.
Lay upon the grass with me.

Breathe

Richard Palmquist 5-4-03

Addendum

Our beloved, sweet boy transitioned from the Earth plane to the Spiritual plane last night. We lost the battle with cancer we fought long and hard for JD. His angels carried him into the Light at 11:30 PM, as we were on our way to the Emergency Clinic.

As we were stopped for a train crossing the road, JD took his last breath in his mama's arms--appropriate that they should share this last moment, in this wonderful loving connection they have always had. Georgia was standing beside JD and Cindy and never made a sound.

JD no longer has the pain he endured and is free now to run unimpeded along the rivers and fields of his spiritual home.

Cindy lovingly attended JD round-the-clock for 2 months, rarely sleeping and hardly eating. She pulled out all the stops in alternative treatments but the metastases couldn't be stopped.

Thank you all for your prayers and concerns through this arduous test of our spiritual strength.

Deep Peace!

Ronn

In Memoriam

JD
Jan, 1999 - Nov 16, 2009
Good night, sweet prince

Thank you to all for your wonderful wishes as we continue to support JD at this time of his life. Yesterday was a great day - he felt well enough to take a walk to the river and even jogged ahead of us as we got near! The weather was perfect for a late autumn day, the air was clean and crisp and it was great. What a welcome change from the events of the past 1-2 weeks. We're starting a new protocol in a few days so will see how that does.

It was such a beautiful day, I even caught Ronn at his "day job":



Well, this year I think the fall was even more beautiful than the last one. Unfortunately I got very few pictures of it - my mind wasn't there most of the time and when I had the opportunity I forgot my camera! But I do have a few pictures I can share:







While I was snapping pictures of the umbrella Japanese maples, a little frog caught my attention and thought he would pose for you:



That's about it for now. I need to get busy making more blackberry jelly. Red thought he would help sign us off for now:

SAY WHAT?

Thank you to all of you who extended warm wishes and blessings for my dog, J.D. He was diagnosed with a malignant mass in his hind leg and last week we found out he had metastases to the lungs. The condition seems to be very aggressive - symptoms change literally overnight. He is fighting for his life right now, and I think it is only a matter of days or hours before we know if he wants to continue with us or make his transition. He sure is a good boy and very strong to be trying so hard! So we are trying to live in the NOW and honor his wishes.
I thank Kathy and Sherry for the essential oils Frankincense and Purification, which I am using on him. They are wonderful.
I know many of you have been at this place before with your own animals, and we appreciate your support.

It has been quite a while since I updated this blog. As most of you know, my dog JD became critically ill the first of Sept and we have been trying to help him. Thank you to all who have kept us in your prayers, and I truly appreciate all your words of blessing and encouragement. He seems to be out of pain now and feeling stronger, so we continue to be positive and are thankful for each day with him.





Well, we knew it would get here eventually. It was 36 degrees this morning - thankfully warmed up a bit during the day. Our days have been beautiful and autumn is upon us - crisp weather, deep blue skies, golden leaves in the trees and piles of pumpkins everywhere. This is certainly a beautiful time of the year.
Our blackberry and Asian pear stocks are nearly depleted now, and the peaches are winding down as well:






Yes, these are pears! We initially thought they were apples and couldn't figure out why they were staying green, until a neighbor informed us otherwise!

I have been trying very hard to make good use of the produce - blackberry and peach pies and jams, pear cakes - ahhh. That's a lot of work but we tell ourselves it will be worth it in January!

Ronn and I were excited yesterday to be witness to salmon swimming upstream in our river. They were quite large and splashed a lot trying to swim in our shallow water.




I have a video but it doesn't seem to show well on this blog, so will just use a picture instead. This one we estimated to be about 3ft long:



We had our first sighting of elk last week. We don't seem to have as many deer visiting us as last year, but they still like to come around and eat the Oriental pears and my lilies!!

It's been a long time since my blog updates!! I just returned from Boston and our international art therapy convention, which takes place every two years. We had great weather and a very worthwhile convention. (Also some unusual experiences - ask me about dorm life sometime!!) It was a time to reunite with friends and classmates:


And make new ones as well. This is Derry's "baby sister", Theresa, and we adopted her as part of our group!!


I've gotten immersed in art projects again. My latest is writing Haiku poetry and keeping a journal of musings about ranch life. I have been continuing the black and white portraits as well. This is "Beanie", who recently passed over. My brother caught her in a pensive mood at Christmas time:




Well, after two days of 100+ weather, the temperatures plummetted to 55 degrees in the am, 68 during the day. We used to joke here that "sure we have summer here, it happened last Tuesday", and I see that still applies. Right now we're enjoying a heat wave of 85 degrees!

The sunroom is finished, and we absolutely live out there - ALL of us!!








And more news of ranch life - Ronn has had more sightings of wildlife. He found a wild rabbit enjoying our meditation garden and a family of raccoons sitting at the pond's edge (no pictures unfortunately). Our blue heron is back and the bullfrogs are gone (Yes!) - my cat Red is entranced with the heron and ducks. See him hiding?


While I was at the convention, Ronn also saw a doe and little fawn (with its white spots) out for a stroll. They may have been sampling the blackberries, which are in full stages of ripening now. I am madly picking pots full, freezing them or making pies. I think we're going to make jam this weekend!


And how's this for ranch produce - 5 (count 'em) tomatoes - Yea!!




In June, we enjoyed a visit from Kathleen (one of the instructors and originators of the Art and Healing program at Ringling) and her husband. Just want to remind everyone that you are welcome also to come for a visit to the great northwest!! (now is the good weather)



And now more pictures from the Pacific coast (think clam chowder, big mugs of coffee and warm woolen sweaters):










More later....... Georgia and JD wanted to sign off this time:

We're in the middle of summer, and the mornings are in the 50's, high temps in the upper 70's! That requires a change of mindset about what constitutes "summertime"! Speaking of weather, we took a mid-week trip to the beach (Long Beach, WA)




















and it was rainy, cold and windy - typical weather for the Pacific coast. Even the locals had to brave the weather!



















We enjoyed ourselves, though - no crowds to deal with. We browsed the shops, ate sinfully rich desserts for lunch, and the dogs ran free a bit on the beach. I didn't get pictures of them playing (:, but did get a group photo as we were leaving. Do you know how difficult it is to get everyone to pose at the same time?

Come on - Mom says she wants to take our picture!

















Georgia, are you ready yet?



















Wow, did you see that seagull! It was really close!




















Finally, success! Now when I say cookie........






















We took a ferry ride across the Columbia from Oregon to Washington, then along beautiful forests until we got to the beach. We had some slightly nervous dogs on their first ferry:








































We returned a different way - across the causeway from Long Beach to Astoria, OR, and Mom was the nervous one! That causeway is MILES long!!













"Back at the ranch", the cats are enjoying the new sun room, which is almost finished (more pictures next time).








































Ronn has been complaining that I never get pictures of him with his "toys", so here goes - this is only the first in the series (hammock and basketball backboard to follow):






















ALERT - another deer sighting! This time the deer was alongside the road, and we had to actually SLOW DOWN to allow it to meander across the road. It walked into someone's back yard, then turned around to stare at us as though to say, "who are you?". That was up close and personal - and did I have my camera? NO! It was home, where I had just downloaded the pictures for this blog!

And this final note - my latest pet portrait, Joshua: