in and throughout this thread I've told about several others who have gone on ahead . . . and now, I will tell you about my BO . . . how she came back and how she delivered TWO very specific and very clear messages. In order to do that, I have to provide a bit of “back story” . . . this has been hard to write but its a story that I need to tell now.
We gave BO back to the LORD on 12.27.22. of all the Rotts we've had over the past 30 years, BO had been the longest lived. Born on my birthday, October 10'th in 2007, BO and I shared a special bond; she was "my dog". Her given name was "Hannah", but I called her "Bo Bo Leigh" . . . just becasue she was so . . .
"bo-bo-ey". When BO left us on 12.27.22, she'd been with us 14 years and 3 months. 20% of my entire life. virtually the entire time I'd been retired. BO was the Rottweiler equivalent of METHUSELAH. You can (and I would encourage that you do) visit her thread here:
https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/ind...ing-bo-pictures-added-44.613225/#post-8898367 there are many pictures of her and you'll realize what a special girl she truly was.
I can tell you unequivocally that BO worked very hard at staying here with us as long as she possibly could. We'd never had a dog that lived beyond 10 years. In her lifetime, BO had shared her home and her people with four other dogs: Noah and Moses who predeceased her, our 4 YO rescue Bear, a Rott/Dobie mix, and finally Gracie, who came to us at 9 weeks in July of 21.
I will tell you without reservation, that I had second thoughts about getting Gracie. I wasn't sure I wanted another dog – much less a puppy – primarily because I didn't want any attention taken away from BO.
You see, in the 14 years and 3 months of her existence, BO had been an "only dog" in our household for a very short time. BO had 12 months between the time Noah left and Moses came and another 10 months between the time Moses left and the Care Bear arrived. In other words, in her entire 14 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS of existence, BO had received 100% of all available attention units for
JUST 22 MONTHS of her entire life. To make matters worse, Moses – who lived life at warp 9.9 – had compounding/cascading orthopedic injuries. By the time he was 3, Moses had undergone 2 knee surgeries. Just as he turned 4 he herniated two contiguous lumbar discs and required spinal surgery. 5 months out from the first spinal surgery, he herniated the two contiguous segments immediately above those and required a second surgery. At that point Moses became a "special needs dog". more specifically, following his second spinal surgery, Moses was necessarily never outside off leash. He was walked everywhere he went. Because of my background, his care fell primarily to me and he received the bulk of my attention. During that time, BO willingly and without complaint or evidence of jealousy, retreated into the background for the remaining 5 1/2 years of Mosies existence. It was not until after Moses left that BO, once again, was front and center and received all of our attention. That continued for 10 months – and then came Bear. That the "Care Bear" was
SPECIFICALLY SENT to us is QUITE clear and with certainty, beyond ANY DOUBT. Its also a very complex tale and a separate story for another day.
You'll see why the details above are important shortly.
Early on the day BO left us, I'd told Raggedyann I felt like a book was being shut in my life. The book opened with our permanent move here from Florida. when BO came another chapter began and yet another when Moses came; when he got hurt and my sister Denise was sick, another . . . and yet another chapter when Denise and Moses passed. Then there was the chapter that started with BO being lone dog in the house - getting all the attention she'd never gotten but deserved because of Moses needs. That was a shorter chapter than it should have been. Another chapter began with Bear and still another with Gracie, and now that BO has left we've opened yet another . . .
also, on the day she left, I've not forgotten the way BO rapidly – I almost want to say frantically - licked our faces and our tears before the first sedative took effect. First one and then the other of us. What was she thinking and expressing at that moment? Did she know and was she telling us goodbye I love you? Was she telling us don't cry mom and dad because I'll see you again soon? Was she telling us don't feel bad because its my time and I've stayed as long as I could?
I believe we ALL come here with “soul contracts”, and I believe we were ALL were fulfilling them.
ALL OF US. we humans AND the dogs FATHER gave us to steward for that ever-so-brief-period in which HE allows us the GIFT of THEM. I believe BO was given her extended time because of the agreements made between her and Moses. When Moses turned 9 he “got old” very quickly. I believe Moses left early in order to allow BO to receive what he'd necessarily taken from her.
BO sent me two very clear messages and several of what I call “winks” from the other side. now that I've given you some back story, I'll begin to lay those out below.
BO left in the early afternoon of 12.27.21. she came back to visit on 12.31.21 in EVERY OTHER INSTANCE of losing an animal they came back to visit me THE EVENING OF THE DAY THEY LEFT. There have been several of those “visits” (you can read about them right here on this thread), yet it was 3 days before BO came back. before she left, I invited BO to come back, and - to come back in a very specific way. she
DID come back - but
NOT in the way I'd asked her to, or as I'd expected. And when she didn't visit, I was not only disappointed, I was deeply grieved by her absence. Ultimately she DID return; as I said it was on 12.
31.21. now look at that date . . . and look at the date I started this thread. It was opened 12.
31.17 the SOLE PURPOSE of this thread is to establish the CERTAINTY of the existence of our pets in the afterlife.
think on that.
on 12.31.
21 BO returned in a very specific way. It was NOT the WAY I'd asked her to return – or WHEN I'd hoped and expected she'd return, but in her own way and with her own very specific message – a message specifically for ME.
On 12.31 several days after she left, I saw BO in a dream. she had a bright red bandanna on and she was up by the barn standing on an old logging road where we'd walked almost every day. she loved that walk. That road led up past the barn and wound around to the pistol range and woodlot. it had been one of her favorite places to go, but because of the small grade, in her debilitated condition it was a bit difficult for her to do in the last few weeks of her life. Despite the difficulty involved, on several occasions she'd wanted to go there. Since I knew she was leaving soon, I'd helped her to go and we'd been able to walk it together as we'd done in the past.
In the wood lot were several large blocks of ash waiting for the splitter. when we arrived at the wood lot we'd sit for a bit; me on a block of ash and BO beside me. I'd talk to her there, scratch her special places and tell her that I loved her. I'd explain that soon she'd be going to the meadow; that when she got there she should go and find grandpa Joe and Moses and all the others who'd run on up ahead. I told her she'd be staying with grandpa Joe and that I'd come to get her as soon as I was free to come. I asked her to go and to wait and remember and, I reassured her that we'd be along “soon enough”. I told her that although I wouldn't be able to see her for a little while, it would be just like when she'd run on up ahead of me and gone around a curve in the road on our walks. That just like those times, she'd be out of my sight for just a little while. I told her I'd always love her. I told her that no one would ever be able to replace her in my heart.
In the dream on 12.31, her first visit, I saw her standing on the road just past the barn. She was headed toward the wood lot. I was looking at her from the right side and slightly behind her, maybe 15 feet. she was stopped on the road looking back toward me, smiling, but ready to continue on. the impression was
"I'm waiting for you to catch up to me. Lets go!" about 10 feet past where she was standing, the road takes a turn to the left. if I were to remain stationary, standing where I was when I initially saw her, and, were she to continue walking, within 15 - 20 feet she'd have gone around the bend and disappeared from my sight.
At first I didn't understand any of this imagery. Eventually I came to understand that BO WAS SHOWING ME THAT SHE'D SIMPLY RUN ON AHEAD. she wanted me to know she'd arrived safely and I knew that she understood that SHE WAS TO WAIT FOR ME, just as I asked. Also bear in mind – this visitation occurred 3 days AFTER BO left - not immediately as had ALWAYS been my experience – but on the day I'd started this thread
“evidence of our pets in the afterlife” 4 years earlier. as I said above, this thread was started with ONE PURPOSE in mind: to document evidence of our pets in the afterlife.
BO returned a second time – once again, 3 days later – on 1.3.22 with yet another profound and very specific message clearly for me. Remember Gracie? Remember that I was uncertain about her? to be brutally honest, although I loved Gracie, I was feeling a bit GUILTY about having her, given the above history
on 1.3.22 I dreamed I was standing in the living room and a dog came walking out from between the couch and the crate we'd set up for Gracie when she first arrived as a puppy. The dog in my dream looked up at me. It was BO with her characteristic smiling BO face. The same face that's in the picture I've labeled “one of her last” (in her thread above). I said very excitedly
OH LOOK! BO's HERE! And then suddenly, as she continued to walk toward me the dog changed and it became Gracie's face that that I was seeing. It was GRACIE – NOT BO – that was walking to me. I didn't understand that imagery right away either. Eventually I came to understand that BO was telling me I need to be focused on Gracie now; that I shouldn't feel guilty; that I should love Gracie the way I'd loved her, and that it was OK. That Gracie wanted to become - and WOULD become - my dog now that BO was gone. Not only was that “OK” it was what BO had wanted and what BO had understood from the very beginning.
I was thankful BO had passed by once again, but I was also sad . . . somehow I knew that was the last in depth message I'd receive from BO . . . and thus far, other than for several winks and “pop ins”, it has been. I'll share some of those below . . .
as described and pictured in her thread (
https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/ind...ing-bo-pictures-added-44.613225/#post-8898367 ) we had a very special baby blue spruce tree for BO's last Christmas - her 15'th - with us. We called it
“the BO tree”. As you learned in the “BO thread” (above) and can see in the pictures below, It was decorated with special ornaments commemorating our fur kids – both here and on the other side. You could see this tree from a window in the master bath. The tree sat on the fireplace hearth in the cook house. After BO left, there was ONE small light on a string of lights that flickered on and off incessantly despite the fact that EVERY OTHER LIGHT on that tree burned steadily. that had NOT happened before BO left and that tree had been out there easily for a week. One night I went out to investigate that. The light was directly behind a clear glass ornament that had been specially made for BO. it had been made THIS YEAR and had arrived just before she passed. It had her name on it. Just as we promised her, the “ BO tree” has since been planted up on the bank between the wood shop and the house. It overlooks the drive where it can be seen when ever you come up the road to the house or walk out the back door. I like to think that BO sits there and watches our comings and goings
BO loved to be out in cook house. In the summer she'd go and lay in a specific spot near the hearth on the concrete floor. Once, several weeks after she'd left, when I was in that place between sleep and wakefulness, I saw her walking away from me toward the cook house along a paver sidewalk I'd built between it and the back porch. Raggedyann wanted it; said that the dogs didn't like walking on the wash stone. BO ALWAYS used that walk – the others not so much.
more recently, I was sitting at the computer in my chair; I'd dozed a bit . . . once again I'm in that “between sleep and wakefulness” state. the instant I became fully awake, I recalled that I'd been looking down at BO from my chair - right where I was sitting at the time. she'd been there, beside me - looking up at me - just as she would have done in life. I saw her face perfectly. she had a certain way of licking her lips and shifting her weight from side to side on her front legs; her ears would be up and her head would be cocked in a very specific fashion and she'd shift her weight from side to side in the front. she'd just done that, and she'd done it just as she'd done in life when waiting expectantly to get a treat of some kind. It was EXACTLY what she'd done when she was in the kitchen or here beside the desk with me. and there just then, she'd done it once again, as I was "in between".
There have been several other things - “winks” as I call them. here are just a few . . .
when she was younger BO used to “dance for her breakfast” . . . she'd excitedly jump up in the air and twirl around 3 times. never more and never less. it was ALWAYS THREE. Gracie has recently started to do that. and she's done it EXACTLY as BO had done. BO had a unique way of greeting me when I came in the house. I'd get down on my right knee and BO would come over and put her head under my left thigh so I could scratch her and cuddle a bit. Grace has started to do that. None of the others have EVER done that with me. The day we arrived back home with BO's ashes there were TWO cards in the mail for BO. one was from
Chance and Jazzy . . . the dogs had a unique bond in a way I'll not go into here, but suffice it to say there were strong similarities between them. the card advised us that there'd been a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation made in memory of BO. . . .there were 10 trees registered and planted in Superior National Forrest as a living memorial tribute. . . Remember that BO tree on the back bank? The other card was from a neighbor down the road. In the case of the latter when I first saw the card I thought the handwriting looked familiar . . . I actually thought it was my fathers handwriting, but he's been gone now just over a year. remember "Grandpa Joe"? that's my father. they adored each other. I fully believe BO is staying with Grandpa Joe until she can be with us once again.
just think about that. TWO cards arrive on
THE day and at
THE time we're bring BO back home. BOTH of them with greatly relevant, meaningful and indisputably direct spiritual connection to BO.
This last may be a reach – I don't know, but because there's been so much I'm going to share it anyway. Gracie came into heat the day BO left us. actually we came home to it having just started. I pondered the significance of it; BO leaving and Gracie rising and maturing - a real sea change. I'd considered it as a sign of the ending of one life and beginning of the ability to create another. Perhaps that's reaching – I don't know, but it seems to me that 7 months is kind of young for a first heat. I also know with certainty that NONE of her litter mates have yet come into heat but one - and that very recently – like within the past 2 weeks.
to summarize BO DEFINITELY returned twice with two separate and very specific messages for me. Each of those messages addressed a specific concern I'd had. The first -
“I'm just up ahead; you can't see me from there, but I'm close and I'm waiting and watching”. BO repeated BACK TO ME
exactly what I had told her. . . she'd UNDERSTOOD and she'd made that "understanding" clear to me. The second:
“I'm still here but now you must love Gracie as you did me and BTW, that's perfectly OK”. that was important to me; I'd not felt as comfortable with Gracie as I should have. BO made that right. and she did it in a very specific way.
6.27.21
BO in the cook house
I got this from one of you here . . . who ever you were -
many many thanks
"Grief never ends, but it changes.
It is a passage, not a place to stay.
Grief is not a sign of weakness nor a lack of faith.
It is the price of love."
know dear old friend that you have always been - as you shall
EVER BE - loved beyond measure.
"SOON ENOUGH"
