The Story Of A Dog Called Mr Grumpy

I was working at a dog shelter, when on one particular occasion, living in with the puppies, was a very old and unhappy looking Jack Russell. It was very cold and windy in the puppy pen and the dog had a snuffly runny nose and was wearing a jacket to keep him warm. He kept disappearing and hiding behind the bushes and he looked so thoroughly miserable that my heart went out to him.

After quite a bit of thought I decided to take him home with me. The name the animal shelter had given him was Mr Grumpy.

I will never forget the soulful look he gave me as he was driven to my house. He had huge eyes with great depth to them. He was a bit on the stocky side and was called Mr Grumpy, because if any attempt was made to pick him up, he would growl fiercely and look as though he was going to bite, even though he didn't have many teeth.

Early in his stay with me, I decided to give him a bone and he immediately got it stuck on one of his remaining back teeth. The vet who removed it, thought that Mr Grumpy was wrongly named and that going by the state of his teeth, he'd probably never had a bone before in his life. I decided to rename him Tenby which seemed to suit him.

His growling was quite fearsome; so when we had occasion to get him into the car, we devised a method of coaxing him onto a blanket and then hoisting him blanket and all onto the back seat.

He'd been living with me for about 6 months and seemed to be settling in, when I went on holiday and left him in the care of a friend, who managed to loose him. I was heart broken, and scoured the district looking for him, asking all the neighbours and contacting the local animal shelters, but he was never found.

Around this time, in my daily meditation, I attempted to tune in with him mentally and I asked him to show me where he was, so that I could find him and bring him home. As I asked the question my candle blew out, though there was no wind or draft or movement of any kind in the room.

I couldn't accept it then, but later I came to acknowledge that this was a communication from Tenby, telling me that he had moved into spirit.

Three or four months after this event, as I was driving along, very near to the spot where he had gone missing, I saw a kitten at the edge of the road. I stopped the car and picked her up, she was bleeding from a gaping head wound, so I rushed her to the vet to get her stitched up. I was delighted to see that her colouring was ginger, black and white. She and I became very close and I called her Sparkles because she washed so much.

It is my theory that Tenby reincarnated as the injured kitten to be with me again. The timing was just right and who is to say whether this is possible, or true or not. Whatever the case may be, it made me so much happier to believe that Tenby had returned to me as Sparkles and the hole in my heart was healed by her presence in my life.