Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

“La verdad es que mientras más enojado estoy con este país y más lejos viajo, más mexicano me siento.”
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Christine
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Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

Post by Christine »

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It's been two weeks since I found this adorable puppy abandoned just off a busy highway. He was skinny and padding around so I asked a few shop owners whose dog he was, they informed me that he and his brother and been dropped out of a car a few days back—someone had already taken his litter mate. He sat at my feet looking up at me and every reason I had for not wanting a dog vanished into the ether, I picked him up and said; "What an angel you are". He is, and that quickly became his name.

He's an obvious mix but it's pretty clear he has a lot of Golden Retriever in his blood. Here's an online description and I will state unequivocally that he is the most incredible puppy ever! The cats are nonplussed by his presence and the black cat, Dude is already playing with him in a cat like way... he taunts Ángel then runs when he approaches, then stops and waits for the next round of tag.

"The Golden Retriever, an exuberant Scottish gundog of great beauty, stands among America's most popular dog breeds. They are serious workers at hunting and field work, as guides for the blind, and in search-and-rescue, enjoy obedience and other competitive events, and have an endearing love of life when not at work. The Golden Retriever is a sturdy, muscular dog of medium size, famous for the dense, lustrous coat of gold that gives the breed its name. The broad head, with its friendly and intelligent eyes, short ears, and straight muzzle, is a breed hallmark. In motion, Goldens move with a smooth, powerful gait, and the feathery tail is carried, as breed fanciers say, with a 'merry action.' The most complete records of the development of the Golden Retriever are included in the record books that were kept from 1835 until about 1890 by the gamekeepers at the Guisachan (pronounced Gooeesicun) estate of Lord Tweedmouth at Inverness-Shire, Scotland. These records were released to public notice in Country Life in 1952, when Lord Tweedmouth's great-nephew, the sixth Earl of Ilchester, historian and sportsman, published material that had been left by his ancestor. They provided factual confirmation to the stories that had been handed down through generations. Goldens are outgoing, trustworthy, and eager-to-please family dogs, and relatively easy to train. They take a joyous and playful approach to life and maintain this puppyish behavior into adulthood. These energetic, powerful gundogs enjoy outdoor play. For a breed built to retrieve waterfowl for hours on end, swimming and fetching are natural pastimes."

Being a curios puppy, he's already gotten himself into serious trouble. He was playful and rambunctious one day and the next he was lethargic and not eating. I thought that perhaps he had eaten too much so waited a day. The next day the same thing, no fever, no vomiting, no diarrhea which seemed to rule out the normal puppy diseases... on the third day I took him to a vet down the street who thought it was impacted feces and gave him a syrup to help him poop. All he did was throw up and was becoming dehydrated even though I was giving him electrolyte water in a syringe. So Saturday morning I went to the vet I usually use, Octavio El Capitán who I trust as he's an old time vet with extensive experience. In under 10 seconds he said he had a bone stuck in his intestines, took x-rays which confirmed it. The only option was surgery even though I was told it was risky. Four hours later I got a call to pick him up, he made it through the surgery and now it was wait and see if sepsis set in. It turned out he had eaten the end of a dried out corn cob which had lodged in his lower intestine... honestly it was big enough that I wondered how he had ever swallowed it. Thankfully we are four days out and he appears to be fully recovered, eating and romping in between naps.

Ángel is the darling of the shop and neighborhood, everyone falls in love with him. I am happy to have this canine companion who naturally wants to please so he sits when I tell him to and we are now working on stay... he even pees outside without having been trained,I couldn't have conjured up a better dog.

Life has a way of presenting surprising gifts.
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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

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I've been meaning to write a bit more of the life of Angel who is now known as Angel de los Milagros. He had to have a second surgery a week after he was recovering from the first one, another obstruction in his intestines from something he ate. During the surgery they called me to let me know they didn't think he would survive as they had to remove a piece of the intestine because it was so damaged. In moments like this all I can do go quiet inside and send out a prayer for the outcome that is meant to happen. He made it out of surgery but they wanted to keep him overnight. The next morning I went to pick him up, not knowing if he had made it through the night. On walking in the door I heard him barking as soon as he heard my voice. He was bouncy and very much alive, the vet's assistant, a very lovely young woman, was thrilled and kept saying it was a miracle—therefore he is now Angel de los Milagros.

The lessons of having adopted this puppy are multiple, without realizing it my sense of freedom while well established and become one sided and the inner me knew something was missing. So ironically taking on the care of a rambunctious and adorable doggie has brought a new dimension into my life, he's a wonderful intelligent companion and I accept the responsibility of caring for him. Right now it has awoken my inner mother who needs to be always aware of his whereabouts and making sure he doesn't eat something else indigestible, it's a sixth sense that is always aware of his wellbeing.

A third event a few days after the second surgery, I woke up to see he had a huge abscess on the side of the incision and a hematoma. I used what I had at hand which was CO2 plasma water over the abscess which drained by the time I got to town. We still went to the vet who wasn't worried at all. What I really need to add here is the spiritual surrender within me, while I do daily contemplation on the nature of the Creator and the realm in that moment I realized that I hadn't made a petition to the ALL in many, many years so I asked for intervention and the message I received brought me to tears, for not only was I to hear the words, God's sweet mercy, I felt it running through my whole being.

Shall we not ever forget the power of prayer and surrender.

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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

Post by Christine »

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Angel is so photogenic I can't resist posting another photo of him. He seems to be completely on the other side of his surgeries, he is a happy and joyful puppy and everyone falls in love with him and his playful nature. For myself I can't sing his praises high enough, he's so intelligent and willing to learn and please. We've got six commands that he obeys immediately... he's got the right stuff.

Other than this newness in my life things are good here, the shop continues to attract new customers and good friends. Interesting conversations often develop as aware people have found the need to not brush off the surface happenings yet comprehend the depth of the Spiritual war we are in. I would love to hear from others what these challenging and opportunistic times have brought you.

Hasta pronto,
Christine
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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

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A quiet moment after a busy morning, sitting outside with the sun shining through the pepper tree casting a speckled shadow on my keyboard. I find it ever more vital to be observant of the gentle beauty that surrounds us in every moment.

Angel continues to enchant though I must say he is acting like a rebellious teenager, he likes to challenge me on commands, it's with a joyful playfulness so I am patient with his antics. He's actually learning quickly so most times he he's quick to obey; sit, stay, come, and down. Next step is getting him to walk on a lead without pulling me down the street.

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Puppy fur has shed and he's developing a sleek golden coat.

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HIs new nick name Goofus.

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Angel's best friend at the shop is Cooper, every morning they have a game of tag your it running around the parking lot.

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Cooper had just woken from a few hour nap on top of the "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" published in 1843. He is a philosopher cat.
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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

Post by Cristian »

meanwhile on a different continent....

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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

Post by Christine »

What a dreamscape, so many times I long for the snow capped mountains and cold. Different continent but never that far away when one travels with the wind.

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Merging realities.
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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

Post by Christine »

It rather unexpectedly rained through the night, a true blessing I had been praying for. The fields of corn had put out their tassels though almost two dry weeks was threatening the formation and pollination of the cobs... We are getting more rain tonight.

Angel continues to grow and grow and grow, when I adopted him it never really occurred to me that he would turn into a full size dog and not stay a puppy forever. I know that sounds silly but it's true. His best friends are the two male cats, Cooper at the shop and the Dude at home, they love to play tag and chase. Neither of the female felines are enchanted by a bounding 35 pound bundle of bark, they'd prefer if he would just disappear. I recently re-inherited Luci-the-Fur because my friend who had adopted her moved to town and decided that Luci would be happier with me in the country, whether she is happier is debatable but I am happy to have lady weirdness back.

I don't have many new photos, I really should take some soon. Here is Cooper who shares me with my across the street neighbor, Michael. This was posted on Facebook yesterday and it made me laugh.

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"Hi I’m Cooper.
This is my senior picture from graduation.

BTW…
I was President of the Catnip Club and
Voted most likely to kill mice… all of them!"
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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

Post by Christine »

A cold, quiet, and wet morning here in Mexico. Torrential rains yesterday afternoon through the evening, driving home most of the country road was under water and the slope of the property on arriving home was running water and the terraces were waterfalls. It was awesome. When you live somewhere where the seasons don't vary a whole lot having an exciting thunderstorm is most welcome.

The energy feels tapped down lately, I've spoken to several good friends and we were all giving voice to the same strange feelings. I don't really follow astrologers but have subscribed to Eric Coppolino on Substack after I heard him speaking on a video talking about digital reality vs analog reality, he's a pretty smart guy. This is a quote from his astrological report titled The Fog You Cannot See:
The good thing about fog is that you usually know it's there. But what if there was a kind of fog you could not see? That is Mars square Neptune.:

"The only way around this is to constantly ask yourself: how do I know this? To what source to I attribute this fact? You cannot be too granular, or too broad in your scope.

The other thing you cannot be is lazy, because to constantly question what you believe takes energy. And it requires you to be in a more or less constant state of discovering that you didn't really know something that you thought you did. It's important to verify what you think you know the best, as well as topics you have no special knowledge of."


It encapsulates my feelings which had been eluding my ability to describe them, for those who have read my often meandering words you might imagine that I found this disconcerting. The good thing is that by now I know to wait until clarity arrives, there is no pushing or pulling required. Ultimately the voice from my deeper well let me know that this is a preparation for what is to come, relaxing into this feeling it further revealed that it's another stage of letting go though I sense this time it's going to fundamentally going to change my perception of the I that reduces to the i am. The quiet voice is relentlessly letting me know that everything is about to transform without any clues as to when and how.

On to more earthly pleasures, the little ones that often go by unnoticed. Angel who is sleeping at my feet right now, paws twitching as he dreams, continues to enchant. With all the water running on the property yesterday he romped, barked, rolled, dug, yapped and tried to capture the running streams in his mouth—the floor of my little house is the worse for his running in and out, nothing a good house cleaning can't fix though.

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Riding to town with the window down, ears flapping and barking as we pass cows, donkeys and horses. Sunflowers a welcome sight against a grey sky.

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Nap time at the shop on his favorite chair, he fell asleep while chewing on his stuffed bear.

—the voice inside continues to nudge me with the thought to look for the littlest things, the answers we seek are not in the big outer noisy world—

Some thoughts on love, eternal love, real love—not the kind that demands or fades when one's desires are not met. Love is found when one loses self importance and attachments to beliefs. There is a deep longing—one in which stories, fairytales, music, imagery, and fantasy can be used to lead us astray. This the social engineers know and use at every opportunity, my words are simply meant as a caution not as a admonition for these feelings are quite beautiful and should be enjoyed in the fullness of the moment yet realizing they are also fleeting.

My experience has taught me that when what you once thought of as dear, vital, important, necessary is stripped away you have the greatest opportunity to surrender accompanied by grace to true love.

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Standing alone in love's embrace.
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Re: Meet Ángel | Lessons in Love, Joy, and Prayer

Post by Christine »

Ángel - Angel, or The Dog™ as he is often referred to because he is pure dog energy has continued to be a joy and a challenge. He's so rambunctious and uncontrollable at times that he pushes me to edge of my patience. I don't mind his romping, mud digging or exuberant nature though he has done a few things that have me chasing after him. A few days ago when I stopped to talk to a carpenter for less than a minute, I had left my Jeep window down, when I got back to the vehicle there was no dog to be seen. I got out, called his name since I couldn't see him on the sidewalk... well, he came running zig-zagging in front of traffic causing some general chaos for a moment, remanding him he got even more crazy but I eventually got him to jump back into my car. He also loves people, I think because most people love him so there have been incidences when I am making a cappuccino or some other task that I realize he's not around. He's found the driveway opening into the parking lot and has, on several occasions followed someone up the street. I've developed a second sense that lets me know when I need to chase after him.

Yesterday I took him on an outing with my friend Denise, he did great, met other dogs, a few burros, a flock of sheep and a pair of horses. He had a blast and thankfully when he got too far away for his comfort he would come bounding back. All in all a wonderful outing and one I would like to do more often.

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First time swimming, he is a water retriever after all.

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Happy dog!

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Pure joy in motion.
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