I’m not just an author. I’m so much more. I’m a mother, a wife, a rancher, a friend, an entrepreneur and an avid animal lover. When we moved our ranch from Colorado to Arkansas, we had no idea how bad the animal abuse was down here. There really aren’t any laws controlling the overpopulation of dogs, despite all of the rescues in Arkansas being at full over over-full capacity and even when a young 15-year old girl lost her life to a starving dog pack, the state did not step in. They brushed it under the rug like nothing happened.
We live in the mountains and our land backs to National Forest. It’s a prime dumping spot for dogs and often times, we don’t find them soon enough and discover their bodies on our hikes. We have recently rescued two, and it looks like we will be able to save their lives. Maddy discovered another abused dog when she was at work and started the rehabilitation for Pebble. Pebble had obviously been used for breeding and once her body got too old, was discarded. She was severely malnourished and heart worms had infested her heart and lungs. Maddy took her into the vet weekly to try and save her. She was loved by our family, and we were rewarded with sweet Pebble tail wags whenever she came back in the house from going potty. To say we fell in love with her is an understatement.
We lost sweet Pebble on Thursday. She took a turn for the worst and after rushing her to the vet, found that the heart worms had won and she was literally drowning in her own body. Maddy made the tough decision to let her go and we sobbed, kissed and loved on her till the very end, telling her what a super good girl she is and how much she is loved.
Coming home, I was going through the full grief spectrum and I’ll admit, rage and anger filled me at the humans who had let her down and utterly failed her. During all of my teachings and studies for spiritual awakening, I’m taught that we are supposed to love everyone, embrace humanity and that we are all “the ocean” and we have our own paths. Judgement is not a part of this spiritual awakening. But that leads to questions that so far none of my classes or teachers have been able to answer.
How do you not judge an animal abuser, a rapist, a murderer, a child molester? How can you be okay with them and love them? How is their actions supposed to be acceptable because it’s “their path”? I know I have been criticized my entire life for asking too many questions, but there are so many teachings out there that once boiled down to the nitty gritty, do not make sense. While I do not work in the field of my college education, that was the one thing that my criminal law taught me; you boil everything down to the facts, the other stuff really doesn’t matter.
So if anyone has struggled with this question (I hope I am not alone) how do you cope? How have you found peace with so much ugliness out there being inflicted on the innocent and unable to protect themselves? I’m grateful for being able to write Azreon’s stories. I can be “human” and dole out punishments to these offenders, even if it’s only in words.
Stay lovely, stay beautiful and stay blessed.