While it's painful to say goodbye, you of all people know that it's not goodbye but merely a transition of the physical. Everything physical comes to an end at some time as part of it's cycle, but the spirit lives on in other forms.
I'm not afraid of this transition, but am sad to be leaving my form and home, which has brought me so much joy. Your love and pride around me have been a great joy. Being a dog can be a hard life, but you allowed me to find the joys in it and we were able to teach and learn together. I think in many ways you have learned more than I in this life, though we are all here to teach as well as learn. It has been wondrous and frightening to be in a position where I need to swallow my pride and allow myself to be tended --so enlightening to know one doesn't have to be completely independent at all times.

Thank you for bringing that to my life -- allowing me to indulge the dog-spirit of wanting to be with you and be touched, while respecting my truer more independent self at the same time.

A message to Marilyn from Maggie as told to our good friend, Sheri Pederson. March 22, 2006.

"Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love ... they depart to teach us about loss. A new dog never replaces an old dog; it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs, your heart is very big."
                                                                                                 ~Erica Jong