Many pet lovers have had the experience of a dog, cat, or other being appearing to know about something without having been shown it. Or inexplicably understanding the significance of something that happened. In some cases a persistent thought may arise in a pet-lover’s mind which, when they respond to it, seems to have been...
Many of us have loved and lost an animal companion. It is truly one of life’s most harrowing ordeals. When we have especially close relationships with our pets, they are members of our family, often as loved as human members. Their passing creates a void we know can never be filled. Immediately after the passing...
Buddhism is well-known as a tradition of inner transformation. But great practitioners down the ages have also emphasised that freeing ourselves from suffering depends on others. Progress in our inner development goes hand and hand with our outward behaviour. It is no coincidence that of the six perfections taught by Buddha, we practise the first...
Like most people who spend time around cats, the superior attitude of some of my feline friends has often made me wonder who they were in a previous lifetime. Princess Wussik, the inspiration for The Dalai Lama’s Cat, frequently reminded us where we stood in the overall scheme of things. Delighted to find a new...
I first published the following blog below some years ago. It immediately became the best read blog I had ever written. I realised there is a hunger for information and practical advice about the death process as it applies to pets, from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. In a very direct way, this blog led me...
There was quite a stir when it was reported that Pope Francis had told a young boy that animals have souls which go to heaven. The story grabbed the headlines because it was the opposite of the previous Papal position. Within 24 hours the story had been repeated so often that it was an assumed...
I wrote the first draft of this blog eight years ago. Since then, rather than becoming less, it has become even more relevant. There is something quite depressing about watching small children tossing aside a half-opened Christmas present in the hope of finding a more instantly gratifying one in the pile beneath it. Or observing...
Among my earliest memories are sharing my bed with a Siamese cat called Pandy. Growing up I was surrounded by pets – feline, canine, my much-loved rabbit Bugs, Greg the guinea pig, as well as an assortment of golden hamsters and white mice. Most of my teenage years were spent with a cockatiel on my...
