Question:
This letter is in response to an article you recently published concerning pet sensitivity. My wife had lung cancer for 13 months and was very ill. We let our two teenage dogs in at night, and they would lie on the couch with my wife. Toward the end, she was in the hospital and passed on. When I arrived home, our poodle was dead. The body was still warm, which would put the time of death at about the time my wife passed. Then next morning, the other dog, a Chihuahua, went missing. Everyone searched but never found her. As an added happening on that same morning, a pecan tree in our yard literally filled with robins (50 to 100) and stayed for some time. In Denver City, Texas, this occurrence is a rare. I took it as a message from my dear wife or the Good Lord that things were OK.
J.D.N., Granbury, TX Oct 10, 2010
Answer:
It may be more than pure coincidence that devoted dogs die around the same time as their human companions. In some other cultures, it is believed that dogs will take on our illnesses and may leave this plane of existence to join their departed loved ones as companions and guides. Your missing Chihuahua could have gone off to find a secluded place to die. As for the rare gathering of birds in your yard, the same thing happened in our yard, with dozens of different species singing and playing in the sprinkler that I had directed on the branches of a tree. They had never gathered like this before when I had watered the tree. Their joyful display coincided with the death of my mother and reminded me of her loving communion with nature's creatures. It could have been pure coincidence, of course, but the association was comforting for me. I would like to hear of other readers' experiences with similar phenomena that were once regarded as omens -- aspects indeed of the miracle and mystery of life.
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