Chester died at 3.00 am Pacific Time. The vet said the underlying cause of death was a slow growing brain tumor.
Abba and her person, a regular blog reader, came to the service and sat in the front row. Abba is fast finding a ‘dog of the blog’ spot.
This morning there was a funeral for Chester to which local congregation and their dogs were invited as well as monks and their dog friends. All went smoothly, no doggy upsets, and Chester now rests in the animal cemetery.
At the end of the burial the monk who has looked after Chester for so many years spoke of how many people loved this dog and he had shown love to many. The lesson we need to learn from Chester, he said, is to love as he did. By that I took him to mean to love unconditionally.
I’ve known and loved Chester during his entire Abbey “career”. I was at the Abbey for the regular Sunday events a few weeks ago. I was about to leave but saw Chester and his monk near the gate and stopped for a quick word and a pat on Chester’s head. Chester was bright and friendly as usual. So glad I got to have the moment with him.
I’m so very glad that you had that chance to pat Chester on the head. It is those little moments when one chooses to do something, as against not, and later know it was really GOOD to do which are so gratifying. (hope that makes some sense…)
Thanks for leaving a comment, please say Hi if you find yourself here at Shasta when I’m here as I’d love to meet you.
It seems we just missed each other at the Abbey–such is life! Thank you for your thoughtful response to my comment. And thanks for your jademountains blog in general. Hope you have safe traveling. With bows, Jeannine
I felt it in my ‘bones’ that you would appear one Sunday soon. Next time I’m at Shasta hopefully we will meet face to face.
I hope you saw Chester’s memorial altar in the Buddha Hall. I’ll post a photo of it one of these fine days…
Have a good winter and thanks for your well wishes. I’m now as rested as I’ll be until I get some rest/renewal time. That’s coming soon.