“THANKS FOR THE MARSHMALLOWS, DAD!”

“Thanks for the marshmallows, Dad!” Bandit the dog said through me to his grieving dad. Dad wasn’t doing so great after Bandit’s passing weeks before the reading his mom scheduled to bring comfort to Dad. “Marshmallows?” asked Dad. “I don’t understand what he means.” In my mind’s eye I saw an exuberant yellow lab licking his lips and wagging his tail so hard it nearly hit me in this dimension.
Mom playfully smacked Dad’s arm. “Of course, you remember the marshmallows. I used to scold you when you fed them to him as a puppy!” Dad’s eyes were puffy from crying and his mind dissociated from grief. Dad froze with disbelief like a kid seeing an ice cream truck toss him a delicious popsicle on a mercilessly hot summer day. Dad exploded with joy. “BANDIT REMEMBERS THE MARSHMALLOWS? BUT HE WAS ONLY A PUPPY, THAT WAS 15 YEARS AGO!”

Bandit was beaming with love for both his parents and proud of himself for making Dad happy. “So Bandit really is alive then? He can see me?” I smiled with the relief I always feel watching clients relax in the life-changing experience that their pet’s energy lives on…happily. Bandit threw Dad another big bone of confirmation he was right there next to him. “Tell Dad thanks for still filling up my bowl, I know he misses watching me gobble up my dinner”

Mom and Dad’s faces glowed with the divine love Bandit was filling their hearts with in gratitude for a routine they’s kept going since he passed. For 6 weeks Dad had still filled Bandit’s bowl and placed it down for him to eat. While Bandit couldn’t physically empty his bowl anymore, he could see and taste the love with which it was prepared, and he could scoop out some grief bite by bite of his parent’s pain. Mom was crying now. “So, Bandit still joins us for dinner each night? We always ate together and we couldn’t stand seeing his bowl empty.”

“Yes, Bandit still eats, sleeps and farts as he always did. He is always aware of your whereabouts and what’s for dinner.” Bandit’s parents thanked me, and I thanked Bandit. It’s wonderful to believe animals go to Heaven, but it’s better to know they do, and even better to FEEL their spirits right here with us, always.

This story isn’t to say you need to keep filling your pet’s bowl every night until you pass on. It is one dog’s story of how he let his people know he still feels their love. His parents stopped filling the empty bowl now that their hearts were no longer empty. (Pictured here is my dog, Randy who loved dancing for his dinner! I adopted him at 14, and he still humped every dog in the park, randy little dude!)