Jack McAfghan: Reflections on Life with my Master

Jack, a mixed breed Afghan Hound, shares his journey through life, love and the Rainbow Bridge.

Introduction

 

Love is the greatest force in the universe. It matters not if a creature has four legs or two; love applies to all of us. We all learn the most from those who love us and from those we love who don’t love us in return. We learn that all the training in the world cannot touch what love can teach.

 

One of our friends called me ‘Einstein’ because he thought I was so intelligent. Somewhere Einstein was quoted as saying that man uses only about eight percent of his brain. I’ve learned that there is a big difference between intelligence and wisdom. I don’t know how intelligent I am per se, but I have gained wisdom from the experience of living and loving on the earth.

 

In the world beyond the world you think is everything is a place where it makes no matter the size of a brain or its usage. In that world there are no brains, there are only great minds filled with wisdom and hearts full of love.

 

Everything in this book is true. A few names and locations have been changed to respect those who wish to remain private. What you are about to read is my personal experience. It may not be true for everyone. What I have come to learn is this: whatever we believe to be true

is what is true.

I love my truth and I have loved living it.

 

1

 

If I could have only one wish granted or one prayer answered it would be to always be in the right place at the right time.

     Life conspires to bring lost souls together. It sets us on a course where we will intersect, sooner or later, at an appointed time and place. One step to the left or one step to the right, a moment sooner or a moment later, and things might have turned out much differently.

     Everything is in Divine Order. Life cannot be forced. Trying to make something happen that isn’t supposed to happen only brings unnecessary pain and frustration. When you trust your master, he will direct your path. You just need to trust him. All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other and follow.

     At any given time, each one of us is but a moment away from the unveiling of our destiny. Until then, we have no way of knowing our life’s blueprint. Some experts say that we decide the course our lives will take and the lessons we need to learn, long before we come to this planet. If that is indeed true, the knowing of it begins to leave us the moment we are born.

 

 

 

2

 

She had done all her research. She knew she shouldn't visit a puppy mill, but that Saturday morning she called the puppy mill lady. She wanted to see my three brothers, my sister and me. Four of our sisters had already found homes. One sister never had a chance. She was stillborn. Apparently no soul was ready when her tiny body was waiting to be filled with life. There were five of us left, waiting for our forever homes.

She drove several hours to the city and spent the day looking at dogs around town. By evening she had not found one that she couldn't walk away from. She had not yet heard back from the puppy mill lady. She called one last time to say that she would be leaving the city at 6:30 pm. She went into a store to do some shopping and returned to her car at 6:25 p.m. She was right on schedule.

“Well,” she said to herself as she started the car, “I guess I won’t be finding my dog today.”

She was heading up the highway when the phone rang at 6:29 p.m. It was the puppy mill lady.

"Hi! We’re home! We'll be here all evening. The dogs are here. Come on over."

Twenty minutes later she walked through the gate. It was a moment I’ll never forget. The night was cool, the stars were bright and fragrant traces of the family dinner were lingering on the barbecue. It was the kind of moment that was so clear and vivid that I would come to remember it forever like it was yesterday. Looking back we know what moments in life are meant to be. This was one of them for me.

 

 

3

 

In a puppy mill there are dogs of all shapes, sizes, ages, breeds, and mixes. It's not the best place for a puppy to come into the world. A young couple had just come and bought two grey schnauzer-doodles. There were more dogs behind the big wooden fence whimpering, whining and barking. I never knew who was back there or why they were behind the fence.

Me, I was a mix of several breeds. At ten weeks of age, I was the ugly duckling. My sisters were born with beautiful black widow’s peaks on their foreheads and the same smooth shiny coats that all my brothers had. I was blonde and scruffy. My hair was coming in thin and rough and my tail was like the tail of a weasel. I was clumsy and uncoordinated, often tripping over my own feet.

They told her that our father was a Standard Poodle and our mother was a Bearded Collie but they never mentioned my maternal grandparents who were Afghan Hounds. The puppy mill lady told her that we were “hypo allergenic”, “low shed” and that we would probably weigh about 45 pounds as adults. None of it was true.

To this day I am not sure that we were all from the same family. I don't know why I was so different from the rest of them, but I was.

 

 

 

4

 

She thought she knew what she wanted. She specifically came to see my little sister, but by the time she arrived my sister had been sold.

“Oh…” she said as her face fell, obviously disappointed.

My brothers hovered around her, climbing all over her and into her lap. One of them was so excited he scratched her face. I just watched them all, thinking how nice it would be to be with someone like her. I hung out in the background hoping she would notice me. The others were all quite unruly, competing for her attention. I think this is where I first learned that climbing all over someone doesn't necessarily make them want to be with you.

It looked like she was going to take my little brother home. I was preparing myself for that. She was sitting on the ground and he was sitting in her lap, sleeping like a baby. Then she looked over at me for the first time and our eyes met. I could almost feel her heart touch mine. They say you fall in love in less than a second. I can verify that this is totally and utterly true.

I was intoxicated by the feelings that I had for her, but something in my heart told me to remain calm. I retreated to my dingy little cardboard bed, turned around a few times and lay down. I rested my head on my front paws as a humble gesture and continued to steadily gaze at her. Waiting. Watching. Hoping. I tried to crawl into her mind with my thoughts so that she would want to take me home instead of my brother. I imagined the fun the two of us would have. I pictured us playing together, walking together and discovering life together. I found myself promising God that I would be a very good dog if only He would let her notice me and make her want to take me home. As she looked across the yard at me, I gently wagged my tail.

She asked them about me.

"Oh,” they said, “I don't think you want that one. He plays rough with the others. He almost killed one of the younger ones.”

I felt bad when they said that but she didn't seem bothered by it. She didn't seem bothered at all.

“I kind of like him anyway, but…” she continued, “They say sometimes a dog picks you rather than you picking the dog." She gestured toward my brother in her lap and said, "Maybe this one is picking me. Maybe I'm supposed to take him?"

Oh no, I said to her, you aren’t supposed to take him. You’re supposed to take me.

All the while she was looking over at me instead of at the one in her lap. It made me feel special, the way she looked at me.

The puppy mill lady went over to her, took my brother from out of her lap, and they continued talking. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but she kept looking over at me.

"Well, guess what?" the puppy mill lady finally said, "It’s official. All this guy wants is a warm lap. I don't think he is choosing you at all."

My heart did flip-flops! I lifted my head and looked at her in anticipation. Sure enough, she came right over to me and sat down at the edge of my cardboard bed.

“May I sit with you?” she asked.

Oh yes! I said, wagging my tail in welcome.

"I think this is the one," she said.

Oh I was so happy! I couldn't wait to go home with her! I didn't really like this place that was my first home.

Then she took me completely by surprise. She went and left me there! She talked a little more to the puppy mill lady and the next thing I knew, she was leaving! She kept looking at me with a sweet look of longing even as she walked back through the gate and closed the latch. I put my head down again, accepting the fact that I might not have a forever home.

I dreamed of her many times in the days that followed.

 

5

 

She returned home and, even though she liked me a lot, she wasn’t sure she could make the commitment to a ten-week old puppy. Almost two weeks later she cast her fear aside and called the puppy mill lady.

"Do you still have that little blonde one?"

"Oh, yes. He's still here. He's been waiting for you."

Oh how I had been waiting! My brothers were all gone. A lot of the others were gone too. I didn't know where she went! I thought she was gone forever! I was beginning to think that nobody wanted me, but she did. She wanted me after all.

This time she came through the gate and she saw me right away. She had a big smile on her face and she only had eyes for me. The puppy mill lady greeted her with a handshake.

“Welcome back, Kate.”

She. Kate. I liked her name. It had a familiar ring to it.

“It’s a big decision for me,” Kate said to the lady, “but I think I’m doing the right thing.”

“Of course you are. Come with me.” The lady didn’t seem too interested in any of the reasons for anything.

I followed them as far as the screen door of the house and waited for her there.

"That will be $250," said the puppy mill lady. "If he dies in the first six months you get a $250 credit towards any dog you want."

"He'd better not die because he’s the dog I want," said Kate as she wrote the check. She glanced over at me through the screen door like she couldn’t get me out of there fast enough.

I rode home in her lap. It was my first ride in a car, watching trees and clouds and rooftops go by. Kate seemed to enjoy watching me watch the world come into being. I looked forward with pure anticipation. I could feel the joy in her heart and somehow I knew it was because of me and joy grew in my heart too.

 

 

 

 

6

 

Love can be found in unexpected places. Sometimes we go out searching for what we think we want and we end up with what we’re supposed to have. Kate originally wanted a low shed poodle mix. When she chose me, she thought she was getting a medium sized collie-poo. What she actually got was a large mixed breed Afghan Hound. She thought she knew what she wanted but God knew what she needed. He knew what I needed too, for the moment that she became my master was the moment I truly began to live.

She thought she chose me but I chose her. I wanted her so much that I had imagined her wanting me as much as I wanted her. I believed that if I concentrated hard enough, that it would come to be. I imagined living with her. I dreamed of her from the moment she walked out that gate until she came back for me. This is when I started learning the power of the mind. It always works, as long as you don’t get desperate or impatient and as long as you keep your heart in the right place and your master at the forefront.

“Welcome home,” she said to me as we walked across the threshold of the big front door. “This is where you live now. Our home is your home, Jack, always and forever.”

 

 

 

7

 

Not all dogs are perfect dogs, but all dogs are inherently good. Like people, we are affected by environment and circumstance. Some breeds get a bad rap because sometimes humans breed them to be a certain way, like overly macho or protective. In our life on earth we are dependent on humans for everything, including our breeding. We can be bred for aggression or we can be bred for peace.

Sometimes things go wrong. I heard one of my brothers was returned to the puppy mill. A blonde lady had bought him. I remember her. She wore pretty clothes and high heels and smelled of expensive perfume. She made an excitable fuss over him that day. I was relieved that she didn’t pick me. I was reeling from her perfume and there was something about her that made me nervous. She brought with her a little plastic bag of raw ground beef that she fed the puppies when the puppy mill lady wasn’t looking. I didn’t take part in any of it but I watched my brother eat and eat and eat. I guess the lady just picked the one who could eat the most.

The first thing he did ‘wrong’ was to throw up in her fancy car on their way home. She blamed him for that, which is too bad because I’m sure it was the meat that she fed him that made him sick. None of us had ever eaten anything but kibble. On top of that he had never ridden in a car before so he no doubt had motion sickness on top of it. She probably never even thought to open the car window to give him air.

At home she didn’t have much time for him. She worked all day, leaving him alone to freely chew on things around the house. He also had puppy accidents on her oriental rugs and hardwood floors. A few months later she took him back to the puppy mill lady.

“I want another dog,” she demanded, “this one is the dog from hell!”

She was wrong. It said more about her than it did about my brother. No dogs come from hell. We come from the same place people do. We all come from Heaven. We’re all from the right place; it’s just that some of us get into the wrong hands.

 

 

 

8

 

Kate had an older dog at home as well. They had been together for many years and life for them had become quiet and predictable. I didn't understand that their world was turned upside down because of me. I had so much to learn! Kate worked long and hard to train me in the ways of living in a house with good manners.

Their life changed considerably. They weren’t used to having a goofball like me around. When I would try to amuse and entertain, Kate would raise her eyebrows, look over at Grady and say, "Oh my old girl, what have we done?" She would gaze back at me, dazed and dazzled, while I ran and jumped around like a kangaroo all over the house. I couldn't help it; I was so happy to be living with her!

She was learning too and she started having more fun in her life. She would laugh with me and call me names like “JackaROO!” and “Jack in the Box”. She sang songs to me like ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ and ‘Ooo-Ooo-Ooo-Oooo Jackie Blue’! She would sing and I would dance around like crazy; it was so much fun! Sometimes she would even dance too. I loved everything but most of all I loved to see her happy.

On the other hand, she was also very sensitive. Sometimes she would sit quietly with me in the evening and hold me close. I really liked the quiet times because we had worked very hard during the day and I was always ready to be calm and relaxed at the end of it. She would softly sing me lullabies and love songs that she said were written just for us. I knew those songs. They were love songs that God wrote for us through someone who could write them, so that we could sing them back to Him and to each other. Just listen the next time you hear your favorite love song and you will realize it was meant for you to sing to Him and for Him to sing to you.

That night I wrote my first love song, for my master on earth, for my Master in Heaven and for lovers everywhere.

 

From the moment I looked in your eyes,

I saw your soul and you saw mine.

You saved me from the life I knew.

I dreamed that everything was you.

You brought me home and there I learned

This life was made for you and me.

 

     Sometimes when she sat with me she would feel the beating of my heart. It would beat slowly and then quickly and then slowly again. Sometimes it beat so fast that she couldn’t count the beats because they all ran together. She had never had a puppy mill dog but she had heard horror stories about dogs that were sick because of bad breeding.

Each night we would sit quietly on the bedroom floor after Grady was fast asleep. Kate would look into my eyes.

“It’s time for our prayers,” she would say. She would put the hollows of her hands on my chest and hold me close, imagining my heart beating in time with hers and in time with the ticking of the clock by the bed.

Our prayers must have been answered because over time our hearts were beating exactly the same.

Author's Note

I welcome anyone who would like to review the first few chapters of my book here. It may give you the impression that it is just another book where the dog dies, but I guarantee that it will not end the way you think it will. Thank you!