BOB REEVES/Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, March 10, 2006 6:00 pm
The relationship between human beings and their pets is typically described in terms of master/servant or trainer/trainee. Canine obedience classes bolster the idea that the proper role of a pet is to follow orders and the pet owner’s role is to give commands.
But many people who have a close relationship with their pets attest that the roles are often reversed. In fact, many humans report that they’ve learned some profound things from their pets — about life, love, and inner peace.
“I find spirituality through Jasmine in its purest form,” said Ivan Goochey. Jasmine is the 12-year-old Manchester/rat terrier cross that shares a woodland home with Goochey and his wife, Bonnie. “Her focus is in the moment, lest she miss an opportunity to play or have a snack or perhaps a good belly scratch. I am reminded that unless I am focused in the moment I might miss the opportunity to engulf myself in the beauty of a sunset or acknowledge the gift of just the presence of someone I love,” he said.
The Goocheys admit that their lives revolve around Jasmine, who spends her days entertaining and being entertained by the two people in her life. “She’s almost like a person,” Bonnie Goochey said. “I can’t really imagine life without her. … When she looks at you, the love’s just in her eyes. It’s totally unconditional. Not ‘if you do what I want I’ll love you,’ but ‘I’ll love you no matter what.’”
Other pet owners agreed that the value of living in the moment and giving love with no strings attached are lessons they’ve learned from their dogs and cats.
Margaret Miller shares her south Lincoln home with two dogs — Clara, a German shorthair pointer, and Percival, a Pembroke Welsch Corgi. Griffin, a tawny-coated Abyssinian feline, also is part of the family.
Clara is trained as a therapy dog, and Miller takes her to visit patients in the mental health unit at BryanLGH Medical Center West. Patients enjoy meeting Clara and giving her hugs and look forward to her return visits. “Pets benefit sick people in many ways,” Miller said. Research shows that petting or holding an animal can lower a person’s blood pressure and reduce their stress level, she said.
Miller takes Percival to a farm in the country where he’s learning to herd sheep. She loves to watch him in his natural element, doing what he was bred to do.
“Pets do teach you about living in the moment,” Miller said. “Any time you take them for a walk, they’re thrilled. It’s like they’ve never gone on one before and they’ll never go again. They help me connect with nature. I wouldn’t walk every day, no matter what the weather, if I didn’t have dogs.”
Dorothy Bush, 86, has been a pet lover all her life and is convinced that animals have souls. “The spirituality of animals has always touched me,” she said.
Pets “comfort you when you’re sick,” she said. “They understand your feelings.” She believes a form of mental telepathy exists between humans and their animal friends.
When her little Maltese died at age 17 last April, Bush turned to prayer. “I told the angels I wanted another older dog that someone was going into a nursing home couldn’t keep,” she said. A few days later she saw a newspaper ad about a dog in exactly that situation, and that’s how Sandy, a 14-year-old miniature poodle, came into her life.
Bush, a champion of animal welfare, co-founded the Mickle-Bush Neuter Spay Foundation. She believes that animals and humans are intended to share each others’ lives as part of a divine plan.
She already had two chihuahuas when Sandy moved in, and the three dogs acted as if they already knew each other. “I believe they were meant to be together and Sandy was meant to come here.”
The Rev. Jane Heenan, rector of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, recently adopted Beeker, a buff-colored Persian cat, from the Capital Humane Society. “The first time I saw him I looked in his huge eyes and said, ‘I love you,’” she said.
Heenan and Beeker have formed a closeness she describes as spiritual. “When I pray, he purrs,” she said. “I think our pets are gifts of God.”
Some people question whether pets will go to heaven, but Heenan is convinced they will. “I don’t see why any lovely thing that God has made to live and breathe and give us companionship should not be a candidate for heaven,” she said. “I think he (God) must be as pleased as we are and wouldn’t want to be without them.”
Heenan conducts a “blessing of the pets” service every year at her church. People bring dogs, cats, birds, even lizards and snakes.
“There’s a deep spirituality in blessing that relationship of an animal, a pet owner and God — a three-way relationship of trust,” she said.
The Rev. Bob Schlismann was attending a pet blessing service at Holy Trinity when he was inspired to start his own pet ministry. A dog owner himself, the ordained Presbyterian minister prays for pets and their owners, blesses them and performs funerals for pets.
“I try to make it as broad and non-denominational as I can,” he said.
Prayers and blessings for pets seem perfectly natural, he said, because animals are part of God’s creation. When he was pastor of a church and the family dog Hazel, a cocker-springer mix, became ill with cancer, “I requested prayer for the health and well-being of our pet,” he said. “Our family was hurt when we learned that the church board did not think it was appropriate to pray for pets. We were told, ‘It’s just a dog.’”
Schlissman said he started the pet ministry to offer comfort and support for pet owners of all faiths.
Pets can teach us much by modeling values, he said. “I think dogs are very forgiving. You usually hear that they’re man’s best friend — loyal and trusting. They have feelings and respond to human emotions. They can distinguish right from wrong. They can express love and teach us how to love. They love us even when we don’t deserve to be loved.”
The Goocheys believe that Jasmine demonstrates how to live a happy and fulfilled life. “Her intent is to be the best she knows how to be at any given moment, to be ready to ‘serve’ whenever the occasion arises. Hers is not a one-day display of piosity; hers is a 24-7 gift of giving and giving, with just (enough) self interest to maintain her identity,” Ivan Goochey said.
Jasmine also shows how to be non-judgmental and accepting of others, he said. She “doesn’t differentiate among those who come to the door. It is of no consequence to her whether the visitor is Catholic or Jew or Buddhist or atheist, whether a banker or a beggar, whether light or dark skinned, whether gay or straight. Her heart is open to all who come. She hones my spiritual awareness through such behavior.”
Pet owners interviewed for this article agreed that spiritual relationships with pets are real, but they didn’t go as far as author James Jacobson, whose book “How to Meditate With Your Dog” was released last fall. Jacobson gives instructions on how to include your dog in your meditation sessions, holding the dog while seated in a meditative posture, dog and human imparting a sense of calmness and peace to each other.
“Most dogs take quickly to meditating with us. It’s natural for them,” Jacobson writes, noting that dogs are pack animals who enjoy physical contact and pick up on others’ emotions. “Meditation is the non-judgmental observation of the present moment,” something pets are innately good at, he writes.
Miller practices meditation herself, but she’s never tried it with either of her dogs or her cat. She also has never tried teaching her dogs yoga poses, something which is spoofingly suggested in another book, “Doga: Yoga for Dogs,” by Jennifer Brilliant and William Berloni.
The book has photos of canines in various yoga poses, such as the cobra, the lion pose and the upward-paw pose. It also has gems of doggie wisdom, such as “Catching a ball is doga,” and “Do not allow outward disturbances (‘Do I hear the mailman?’) or private worries (‘Are we going to the vet today?”) to distract you. Let it all go.”
Miller once gave a talk for children at the Unitarian Church, introducing Clara and telling about her work with hospital patients. She noted that in the past people lived very closely with animals, but today we’ve lost that contact. “Living with pets helps to remind us that we share the planet with other creatures and our lives are bound up together,” she said.
Perhaps that’s the most important spiritual lesson of all.
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or at breeves@journalstar.com.
Contact the ‘Pet Pastor’
The Rev. Robert Schlismann offers a ministry to pets and to their people, including blessings, prayers for pets’ health, grief counseling, pet funerals or services for burial or scattering of ashes. For information call 484-7260 or e-mail sanyu@alltel.net.