Dog Lovers Unite!! by Kate Loving Shenk

Muki and Ule In A Rare Pose Together!!

Heading Into Winter

   

These fellows are certainly in-joying their park experiences!!

 

The warm weather enabled "the boys" to in-joy a nice cool swim!!

 

And then another sunset, and time to meander back home--

 

Back to the Conestoga River where we all swim throughout the summer months!! And I can see this beautiful body of water all year long!!!

Kate Loving Shenk

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

The Park Is A Meditation Retreat

Let Us Bow Our Heads In Prayer

The park has become the great energizing experience of our day, Ule, Muki and me. We are all better for it. I notice that Mukunda sleeps better, whereas before we embarked on this daily adventure, he was restless at night and wasn't able to get comfortable.

This was especially true before he had his tumor removed!

The Well Rested Couple

And watching Muki trail behind as he happily moodles along is a great joy to behold.

The Beautiful Green Trail

Totally Loving The Park Trail

By choosing solitude, we hear, feel and experience our
inner power.

We realize that
we are never alone.

Kate Loving Shenk

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

Ulysses And His Great Stubborn Streak!!

  Ulysses And Me

Ulysses has been very difficult with other dogs--big dogs. He's
always loved the tinier variety of doggies. But because of his
unpredictable nature, I haven't gone to the neigboring dog park for
more than a year.

And as a result both of us have gained some weight.

Mukunda has gained a few pounds, as well!!

So everyday for over a week, off we go, walking that green four miles
along what is called "Mill Stream" which empties into the Conestoga
River which flows by my house.

All three of us love these walks. Muki pokes about a hundred yards back,
but then trots to catch up. We back track, (I keep Ule on a lead) to
encourage Muki to join us, and off we go, again.

Muki Is Lovin Our Walks, Too!!

At first, Ule was crazed any time he saw another dog.

Now he has a friendlier look to his general aura when we see the occasional
dog. But still, I am not ready to see what he plans to do after
I let him off the lead.

Maybe in a few weeks.

The Park At Dusk

Kate Loving Shenk

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

 

My Day With Mukunda, Part 2

It's been two weeks since I stopped watching the news.

And one week since Mukunda had his surgery.

And Now, we are hanging out by the river. Suddenly, the days
are warmer, the pale green hue of springtime is deepening
with every moment.

My friends ask me: What was it like to watch your dearest
companion be sliced into and stitched back up for a total
of three hours?

Frank, our Vet and friend kept asking: How are you holding
up, Kate?

And I thought, How am I really holding up? Could I faint? I
hadn't eaten. How embarrassing it would be to faint after Frank
so graciously allowed me into the operating room.

So I dropped the idea of fainting and got into the experience,
chatting with Frank about mutual friends, and discussed the days when
I was nursery school teacher to Frank's daughter, now also a Veterinarian.
Muki's heart monitor reassurred me of his continuing physical life.
Otherwise he did look as if he died, reminding me of the time I
saw 8 of my dogs after they were shot to death by a neighbor who hated
"Hippys," and who later was said to embezzle 8 million dollars from
the Republican Party in Lancaster County.

Or so the story goes.

At the time, the sight of my lifeless companions, done in by so much
violence, prompted me to wait 28 years before before I could
bring myself to get another dog: Thus Mukunda, then Ulysses four years later,
the greatest friends I have ever had.

The days since the surgery have been quiet. The moments spent
stroking my dogs, watching sunbeams bounce prism rainbows off Mukunda's paws
and Ulysses eyelashes, listening to birdsong, watching the ever quickening
pale greenery, marveling at the Daffodil and harvesting newly sprouted Nettle to
sprinkle on the food I prepare every night for these dogs, has been an
education in Being, In-Joyment, in Pure Peace, and also a touch of Spring
Fever, which I never want to end.

These dogs are representatives of the spiritual realm, messengers and teachers,
to teach what it truly means to live in the present moment.

The dogs are not concerned about tomorrow, nor do they obsess about the past.
They love harmony and quiet and love.

In fact, they thrive on it.

My dogs abhor fights between humans. I call these creatures my harmony barometers.
When I get tense and anxious, my dogs remind me: Forget about it.

Get back to harmony, they tell me.

They act as a tuning fork that resonates only with Joy, Love, Peace and
Enlightenment.

And when I am with them, their need for love and peace is exactly what I need.
We resonate together to create a harmonious space.

These dogs tune me into my higher, infinite and eternal awareness.

When I am with them, I truly am happy, in a timeless realm.

I am convinced they are guardian angels, God's messengers for peace and silence,
the space between the notes, the quiet at 3 am every morning.

The dogs remind me to listen. They remind me to cease judgment of all
creatures great and small.

They were happy when I turned off the news, where all the pundents
scream and yell about impending doom.

Wow!! Why did I watch it so long? No matter. It's off now, and is off
for good. That's the promise I made to my dearest friends, Ulysses and Mukunda.

I like it that the dogs don't talk as  conversation and endless analysis. Yet
they do converse but silently, through intuition, through loving glances,
and as in the case of Mukunda, sometimes with loud barks when he sees a human
friend he recognizes.

Ulysses is even more silent than Muki. He often looks like a giant tortoise as he
makes his way to his customary place beneath the kitchen table.

And now as I sit on my sun porch, and darkness descends, even the birds have ceased their song.

Ulysses lies beside my writing arm on the couch, and Mukunda lies at my feet. He is
wearing a teeshirt to protect his stiches for yet another week. When the tee gets dirty,
I have several others that are working well. I especially like the Planned Parenthood
tee, that on a dog who never was "fixed." He never needed to be. He always stayed close by,
he loves people, all dogs and children.

Ulysses is another story. He is a Golden Retriever. He's supposed to be mellow, friendly
and lead the thieves to the family jewels.

But Ulysses kills groundhogs, squirrels, (if he can get them), hates other
dogs except for Mukunda, whom he worships, and is fiercely protective.

A man approached me in the park one time and Ule's hair stood on end and he
snarled and lunged at the man.

Ule is my Old Yeller. Mukunda is my Saint Reborn.

When these dogs die, I will not fall apart but will be put back together
because they taught me how to live, how to love and forgive. And in their
love for me, I have learned to love myself.

Their presence in my life has shown me the Presence that resides within
myself and everyone else.

Their Being-ness has taught me to slow down, turn off the TV, to sit in the
night and listen to sound and silence.

Walking with them night and day has acquainted me with the sky, the clouds,
the identified and unidentified objects that soar beyond the clouds.
We often walk along the river that the dogs have always known.

The heron silently skims the river surface and is quite a gift to behold.

The geese chase Ule while he swims and scold him when he reaches the shoreline.

These Dogs are Gods.

They are beauty in all guises.

Words are inadequate but may help you to transform your heart, as you read
them, one by one.

Kate Loving Shenk

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

My Day With Mukunda

I hung out with my old dog Mukunda, today, as I do every day.

I took him to my friend Ellen's house and we exchanged the Mechano
treatment, only after we tossed a few rounds of ball and
marveled at how well Muki ignored Aslom, the cat.

We complimented him on his good manners. I took him for several
leisurely walks around Ellen's large city yard and we admired the
spring crocus, and snow drops between dark green chive.

During our treatments, Mukunda laid dutifully on the floor,
looking our way occasionally with a laughing pant.

He ate all of Aslom's cat food. He had the run of that big
old house and the yard, but he only wanted to be with us.

Later, I took him to the Vets. Muki has a tumor on the left
side of his body which has doubled in size since December.

Frank, our Vet, had a look of concern on his face as he examined and
palpated and probed. He thought that Muki looked awfully fat
but in reality, had only gained 4 pounds since the last visit.

Was it all the cat food he ate earlier?

Was it all the late night winter snacking?

Frank wondered, Could it be ascites?

Ascites is an ominous sign. The mere mentioned raised my pulse
rate.

Ascites is when the abdomen fills with fluid accompanied by a
cancer that has metastized.

But Muki didn't have a heart murmur, a good thing.

Before Frank would do the surgery, he did a chest xray and some
blood work to determine the health--or illness--of my old dog.

Holding him down on the xray table was a challenge, because he kept
nipping the technician. Drawing blood was no picnic either. He
snarled a few times, but I whispered in his ear how much I love him.

Naturally he calmed down because above all else, Muke loves the word "love."

Muke and I were ushered to the waiting room to wait for results
when our Great White Purinese neighbor, Baxtor, came in for an
appointment with his mistress to assess his allergies.

Muki and Baxtor immediately recognized each other and did a dance
around the other.

Muki journeys to see Baxter every morning and evening as a sacred
ritual to begin and end the day.

So as I waited for the test results, inwardly knowing I must face any
bad news that Frank might have, but also knowing that Mukunda is alert,
loves to eat, loves to sprint to the edge of the property several times
a day, (while at the same time, bothered by the fast growing tumor), so I
did not have an ominous feeling about what news Frank might have about
the test results.

As much as I love my Mukunda, and as much as I don't want him to die,
I know the time will one day come when he will die.

And I will join him the moment I draw my last breath.

Frank came out and said, You have to see this xray!! It is gorgeous!!

And, indeed it was: clear lungs, strong heart, succinct borders
around the liver and abdomen. Wow!! All those Mechano treatments
I give him are paying off!! as well as meals made from scratch, sprinkled
with brewers yeast and dried stinging nettle that grows prolifically along
the mighty Conestoga River bank that spans the front of our property.

And Muke regularly meditates with the humans in the house.

He knows what "meditate" means.

Then later, the blood work result revealed no elevation of white cells,
perfect liver enzymes, platelets excellent, Calcium within normal range,
and an above average hemoglobin level.

Frank, I said, There's one more very important consideration. Mukunda
and I have never been apart. I take him on every vacation, I've never
boarded him, and I work nights so he is always with another human being.

He needs to know that I will not desert him during his operation.

May I stay with him while he undergoes surgery?

Without hesitation, Frank said, Of course, Kate. He is your baby.

And I secretly wondered, How will I detach from my lovely beast?

Strict Spiritual practice is in order to prepare for this event.

To Be Continued.....

Kate Loving Shenk

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

Old Dog Blessings

I was once a child of the 1960's, which was not a popular place in the world back in the day.

I lived on a commune with about 10-20 people and 10-15 dogs, give or take, depending on the litter of puppies of any given season.

A rabidly right wing neighbor shot eight of my dogs, and later a posse of policemen swept the commune, thinking that we would be an easier target without eight dogs to complicate their mission.

No drugs were found.

My neighbor who killed my dogs years later embezzled 8 million dollars from the Republican Party, and his family left him in disgust.

Meanwhile it took me twenty-one years to get another dog, my beloved Mukunda.

We just celebrated his 10th birthday.

At intervals in that twenty-one year period, a dog would come into my life, nudging me to deal with the loss of my eight dogs.

Only one was remotely successful.

I had a short tumultuous relationship with a man who had an old beagle named Wild Dog. One day, he dropped her off and asked me to take care of her, twelve years after the ending of the commune years. And I agreed that I would.

Because of her advanced age, I took her for many short walks.

I remember time slowing down.

I remember her appreciative glances my way, and i felt once or twice the great wisdom she emanated from every cell of her tiny old body. I did not want to give her up, knowing the day would soon come when she would go back with her master.

I remember the flash of memory surfacing pertaining to my commune dogs Alphy and Das and all their noble offspring, and how they and Wild Dog were dog/Gods come to sweep us away into eternity.

But her master reclaimed her and I forgot about my feelings of love for this very dear soul, as if forgetting a very important dream. It is in remembering the dream that our everyday  loses the mundane quality of reality.

As I saw on a bumper sticker recently: "Reality is for people who lack imagination."

In this beautiful lush spring season, when green suddenly bursts forth from mud and brown earth, we can practice bringing that tone into our hearts for expression.

Mukunda reminds me of green even though he has a red head, just like mine. Or is mine just like his?

We are both green souls.

The cardinal is red yet she sings, surrounded by the profound green of the forest reflected on the great Conestoga River that rolls past our house.

The river is also red after long periods of rain. And at night, moon light filters through mist, reflected on dark river, as the red fox yelps her urgent message.

And Mukunda barks to go out and find her.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A Pit Bull washed up onto our Conestoga River Bank, one day.

He was carefully sewn into a moving blanket, weighted down by brick and concrete block, and thrown into the river points south of our home. The dog had deep tooth marks on his neck, and his right shoulder has been torn apart.

He was killed in a dog fight, professional or domestic.

Are there professional dog fights in our town? I surmised that there are–and that the killed dogs are dumped into the town's drinking water supply.

I wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper, accusing the town of ignoring this issue. The Pit Bull was given a proper burial, down in the pasture along the river.

We gave the fella a name: Old Mac, the Conestoga Pit Bull. He was treated badly in his life, was taught to be mean, to kill, to tear up smaller animals than himself.

Perhaps he would have killed Mukunda.

But it was people who created the monster who rolled up on the bank of the meandering Conestoga.

He came to us, so we could think about him, feel deeply in our heats the travesty of his existence. We will muse about this every time we walk by the pile of rocks that top his tiny memorial, overlooking Canadian Goose habitat, squawking Blue Heron taking flight and skimming the river surface, and bird song music, also the yelp of Red Fox everywhere surrounding him.

So he found a final resting place where all of us who pass can ponder his existence. How does Old Mac, the Conestoga Pit Bull, fit into our great theme of freedom when he was used and exploited in his short life? And in his death, he made the mistreatment of innocent animals into a public statement.

Mukunda regards Old Mac's grave site with a seriousness and an aura of contemplation and reverence. He looks at the grave for two to three minutes at a time, and therefore, so do I.

Mukunda now realizes that bad things happen to dogs. Before this time, he did not know. His innocence has been transformed to worldly ways.

Since then, he listens to me more consistently, wants to please me more constantly instead of proving his will over mine. And to think Old Mac could teach me to be more humble as we place one foot in front of the other, passing his memorial every day. Dog is man's best friend. The dog is not returned the unconditional love they hold for our supposedly superior species.

Yet even when they are abused, they teach us love.

Even when they die, they live on.

Kate Loving Shenk

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

The Mechano Magic Once Over

The Mechano Magic "treatment" is a wonderful balancing.

My oldest friend Ellen and I exchange weekly Mechano treatments. We've done this now
for five months. Ellen's dad taught all of us in her family and mine how
to do the treatment. Her dad, Hal Williams, was my Homeopathic Family Doctor.

We are really loving this exchange. The weekly rhythm, coupled by the intimacy
and the caring of the already existing relationship and the treatment itself, has
brought us closer.

We are healing from the inside out.

I love the treatment. I'd say that I crave the treatment.

My dogs seem to crave it, too.

My golden retriever, Ulysses, will suddenly appear, walk backwards until
his back repeatedly bumps my leg, asking me to do the treatment, which
is done along  the spine.

Naturally I do a Mechano Once Over until he is satisfied. Then he trots off.

This happens at least 5 times a day.

At Ellen's today, her cat Oslo climbed one of those cat trees with a perch
that loomed above me. Once he got up there, he laid down as if to say: Treatment, please.

Ellen gives him many daily treatments. He thought he'd sample one from me.

Ellen had a cat named Ella, named for the doctor who taught her dad how to do
the treatment.

Ellen is named after the same doctor.

Ella, the cat, lived to age 25. We all think this longevity is due to the great
healing qualities given by the beautiful massage, which Ella received
5 or more times a day.

25 years is a long life for a cat.

Today was a rainy day. My dogs each asked for 3 treatments each.

But the night is young.

They surely will ask for several more!

Kate Loving Shenk

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

Dog Days

I found a rugged quartz crystal in our garden yesterday
and brought it to my writing table, to gaze at
its beauty and reveal its mystery as I write, like
gazing into a crystal ball.

The five crystals in the center of it are perfect,
in their own wild way, like the days I spent in total
conflict with myself, with society and the world.

It brings to mind one of my favorite Alphia stories, my
golden German Shepard Collie of the 1960's, the pre-Funk
commune years, occurring several months after the communal
caravan arrived in San Francisco.

We found our large Victorian house after several
weeks of illegal camping around the jagged Pacific shore
hideaways and in the many untamed parks for which the city
is famous.

The caravan people had remained disgruntled in spite of
the constant dog/God guidance surrounding us.

A chasm developed between those who wanted to join the
ranks of the work-a-day world, and the four of us who went
on to establish the Funky Farm community and knew that
going to work was antithetical to living creatively by
the seat of our pants.

I had come to a place within myself where I needed to live
outside of the mainstream, established 9-5 ho-hum I'm beaten down,
kill me now style of existence I imagined my father ascribing
to for his thirty-five working years, at the same place,
doing the same job, everyday. I'd think of an exhilarating alternative,
bet on that.

My life as a rip off artist now began in earnest.

One day, I took Alphia Lee for a walk in Golden
Gate park. A squirrel distracted her from the beloved stick,
and damn it if she didn't run in front of a fast moving
car. She crawled back to the side of the road.

I remember crying and kneeling beside her, going over her body,
getting a sense of how badly she was hurt. A car pulled over
and a young man asked to take me where ever I wished to go.

He had an old blanket and we carefully laid her on it.

Then he drove Alphia and me to the big rambling Victorian
house that was our temporary abode.

We prepared a bed for her with old blankets and rags.

She'd look at us with a forlorn Muki eye, the dog who joined
me 28 years later to show me true love.

That look inspired me to slip into the meat department
of a local Safeway, and steal one steak a day for her,
and for her only.

Then we'd sit with her for hours, stroking her neck and
body and encouraging her to come back to us.

The long intimate times we spent with her
were patient and happy. We did not desperately plead
with her to live rather than die. Rather, we coaxed
her gently, showing her our love, and gave her the
great option of living with a handful of rogues completely
alienated from society.

She opted to spend a few more years with us in our
experiment of living--dangerously.

Kate Loving Shenk

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

Dog Food--My Pet Peeve

I prepare food for my dogs from scratch every day: organic meats,
rice and green beans with garlic, brewers yeast and stinging nettle
that grows in my backyard--prolifically!

The following is an email I received from Dr. Andrew Weil, about
what he feeds his dogs.

He uses "Pet Promise."

I am going away and leaving my dogs with my sister-in-law
who will take good care of my boys, Mukunda and Ulysses!!

Yet this is the first time I have ever left my babies!!

Perhaps I can make her job easier by supplying food
I know is good because Dr. Weil says so. Pet Promise is easy
to get--and is sold in all Weis Markets.

Here is the article I received this morning from Dr. Weil:

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With this year’s pet food scare, pet owners may be wondering
what to feed their dogs and cats these days. When choosing
food for his own Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Jambo and Daisy, Dr.
Weil stays away from anything containing animal byproducts,
rendered or recycled meats, poultry or fats, and looks for
meat protein that is properly cooked before it's consumed.

He suggests you always check pet food labels to make sure
that they clearly state that the food does not contain added
growth hormones, antibiotic-fed protein sources, or rendered
meats, fats and poultry.

Pet Promise, the pet food he uses,
does not contain any of the protein sources mentioned above.
Dr. Weil worked alongside Pet Promise three years ago to help
them develop their products.

He personally receives no money
for his work with Pet Promise, and he donates all of his
after-tax profits from royalties from the sale of Pet Promise
products directly to the Weil Foundation, a not-for-profit
organization dedicated to supporting integrative medicine
through training, education, and research.

Kate Loving Shenk

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Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
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http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
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