The Dog Chapel

Darlene, JJ and I drove over to Vermont yesterday and visited the Dog Chapel.

We were greeted by a sign with these words: "Welcome: All Creeds. All Breeds. No Dogmas allowed."

The place is just wonderful, with trails, a dog swimming hole, agility course, and the chapel itself.

The chapel was covered with notes, postcards and pictures of their dogs, and messages about missing them. It was very moving.

(@left: JJ, checking out the Dog Chapel)

We then walked all around Dog Mountain. JJ ran around the trails and through every mud puddle, and Darlene and I ate too many wild Blackberries that lined the whole way.

It was a joyful day, but I couldn't help but again think about all of the people that responded to the death of Wil Wheaton's dog (see my last blog post), and story after story of peoples' joy over their dog's lives, and the grief and sense of loss when they leave us.

Not unrelated, I had a bad dream this morning...it was one of the short ones that happens after you first wake-up, but instead of getting up, you go back to sleep. I saw JJ get hit by a car in my dream, and the wave of anguish was unbelievable. I haven't been able to shake the bad image yet, but hugging the dog (and the cats as well) this morning helped.