Death and Belief in an Afterlife

We’re Back!
We’ve been away from Caring for Pets for several weeks due to the illness and death of a family member from cancer. David was the finest man I’ve ever met, also the handsomest and most intelligent, but none of these qualities prevented him from suffering and distress.

Cancer
David had metastatic cancer that invaded his kidney, brain, liver, and lungs. Chemotherapy scorched his tongue and he didn’t want to eat. A swollen liver allowed the wrong materials to reach his brain, and his thinking resembled that of an old alcoholic rather than the brilliant man he was. He had seizures and took medications that dulled his thinking. He fussed repeatedly with his contact lenses, and one day we found three in one eye. David was irritated by noise and came to dislike music and occasionally demanded that everyone leave the house. The fine women who work to produce Pollen Sweaters (http://www.pollensweaters.com/) in his home accepted this with incredible grace. Everyone, especially his son, grandson, wife, daughters, and close family members worked to make him happy, but even the family was not enough to bring David peace the last few weeks of life.

Afterlife
These last weeks, David was distressed as much from mental suffering as from physical suffering. His mental suffering wasn’t caused by despair that he’d wasted life but from his inability to believe in an afterlife. Belief in an afterlife is something each of us comes to through our own awareness. Most holistic veterinarians realize there is an afterlife because of the energy pets share with us, especially when we ease their suffering through euthanasia. Those of us who are aware of an afterlife know that David, like all creatures, is surrounded by a loving energy in death just as in life.

Alleviate Pet Suffering
David’s death was very painful experience, but it is also an opportunity to focus on what’s important, and I’m going to redouble my efforts to alleviate pet suffering. Some pet suffering is obvious and dramatic—trauma, cancer, and crushing infections—but the most common forms of pet suffering are more subtle, such as lameness, nausea, and bowel problems. More on the bowel problem of constipation coming right up. At least there's movement somewhere.