From Jack: My Last Earthly Memory - Taking Those Darned Pills!

There seems to be a lot of guilt over the issues of pain pills and end-of-life treatments. People feel guilty if they didn't give them. People feel guilty if they did.  People just feel guilty, it seems to me, no matter what they do or did. 

Every four hours she waited to give me my pain pills. I fought with her every time. She would cry as she forced them into my mouth. In our whole life together she had never forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do.

 

I just didn’t want those pills! I was in pain, yes, but she didn’t know how awful those pills were for me! She kept trying to hide them in things – like cheese or bacon or yogurt or peanut butter. She thought I might not know they were in there. I didn’t even want to eat my favorite things at that point … and I sure didn’t want to eat those pills!

 

The last one she gave me was wrapped in a peanut butter cube. I remember how she watched the clock until 10 p.m. when she could give me the next dose. I took it. At 1 a.m. I sat up and looked right into her eyes. I was very weak and going back and forth in consciousness. It was the first time I had sat up in many hours. She was spellbound, looking back at me, looking deeply into my eyes. 

 

"What Jack. What is it?  Do you need something?" she asked me. I surprised her by spitting the entire peanut butter pill cube out on the floor between us. She knew then that I was serious about not wanting those pills! I lay my head back down and I crossed the Rainbow Bridge two hours later, clear thinking and unaffected by pills in my system.

 

I watched her after my spirit left my body. It was fascinating how she cleaned up the place! She washed all the dishes, the blankets, the floor. She had a little bowl where she had mixed the pills into some yogurt. I watched her take the tip of her finger as she took a teeny tiny taste of the mixture. She recoiled. “Blech!” It was the most disgusting thing she had ever tasted. God knows...I had tried to tell her.

 

I will be letting this memory go as soon as I finish this message to you. Like all dogs, cats and other animals, we leave such memories far behind. We are not like humans who torment themselves by dwelling on things long after the moment is gone. How is it that people can feel guilty about so many things? They deprive themselves of the sweetness of memories by embittering themselves with the guilt over a few painful moments.

To humans it seems, it all is Black and White. You are guilty or you're not. But YOU'RE NOT! You're not guilty.

No Matter How Far: Love Never Dies and Communication Never Ends

When humans speak to one another they speak with their voices in words that they have defined.  Do you realize that the words people speak are just a small percentage of their communication? When you take away the voice, the speech, and the words, there is still a great deal of communication taking place. The words are shaped in the mind; in the brain. The inspiration for speaking the words comes from the heart. The heart is the true center of genuine communication and Love is the greatest inspiration in the universe.

You may not realize it but you are communicating with us all the time, even when you aren't speaking. We watch you. We hear you. We feel you.  We observe your body language. We look into your eyes. We watch your gestures and listen to your tone of voice.  These are more revealing than the words that you might speak.

"Like words that sound the same but are opposite, sometimes I couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying. They kind of seemed the same. I would have to look very carefully at her eyes and her mouth. I assessed the tilt of her head and her breathing pattern. I got good at deciphering her, but sometimes even when she was laughing, tears would come out of her eyes. Humans are strange that way. They live such a dichotomy." 

(Jack McAfghan: Reflections on Life with my Master, Chapter 29)

You can learn to understand us too.  We do not use words, but we communicate in very similar ways. We can't smile but we can wag our tail. We can't speak our joy in words but we can jump, squirm, and wiggle when you come home from work!  You can get hot under the collar because you are angry. We can get hot under the collar too and we might growl when we feel that way.  Most of all, we speak from the heart. Our heart to yours.

After we cross the Rainbow Bridge we are all magicians!  We can "speak" in amazing and unique ways by using the power of energy connected to tangible things. While some of you can pierce the "veil" between Heaven and Earth and see and hear and know things through the power of the psyche and intuition, we know that most of you can only sense things in the physical realm, if you are aware of us at all. So we find ways to reach you.  Clouds, rainbows, dreams.  Lots of times things that are associated with power and energy like lightbulbs, clocks, electronics, and appliances.  Electricity is the closest thing on earth to what we become when we cross the Rainbow Bridge. We are energy and electricity is energy so it's easiest for us to reach you through energy circuits.

You can learn to communicate with us by translating what you see into what we are sharing with you. You can learn to speak to us not only through your words, gestures, and body language but also through your heart. It is through the heart that we see, hear, and feel most clearly.  If you think you might have seen a sign from me, chances are you have -- or you wouldn't have even thought of signs from me. If you have goosebumps (the electricity of the skin) -- observe your thoughts and look around. It is probably me.  All of us in Heaven have a goosebump "signature" and you will learn to recognize mine.

Just keep an open mind, grow in your faith that I am not gone, just gone from your sight. "Wipe the tears from your eyes and watch for the signs that I send to remind you that Love Never Dies."

Stay tuned for our upcoming and long-awaited book: “PawPrints from Heaven: How to Communicate with Your Pets in the Afterlife” to be released in September!

I've Heard that Dogs and Other Pets Don't Have Souls and It Makes Me So Sad!

 Dear Jack, 

I have been reading your books.  I saw something today that said God only loans our babies to us for a short time to enjoy on Earth.  Also, then, that they won't be in Heaven and we won't see them, again.  Thoughts?  

A Devoted Reader

Dear One, 

Thank you for reading the books, for they are the key to healing from your loss. 

People come from all walks of faith and all walks of life and belief. This person sounds like they have been convinced that animals don't go to Heaven. 

Oh, I have many (many) thoughts on the topic. I've been to Heaven firsthand and Kate has been studying these things for 40+ years. We are currently writing an entire book on this very subject as we speak. 

It's mostly strict religious people who will tell you this kind of thing but there is much evidence to the contrary. Pets have souls just like you do. If they didn't they would all have the same personality, and we don't. 

Pets have the Spirit of God in them just like you do. That Spirit is what brings all of us back to God when it's time to leave this physical world. That Spirit is the love of God that joins each and every one of us together, and Him to us... Some are bonded more than others (known as "soulmates")... God brings all of us Home when our work and learning on earth is completed. Life is the school, love is the lesson and we all "graduate" into the Heaven that is our eternal home.  

We tell you all about how this happens in Book 3 ("Return from Rainbow Bridge") in my story that I write from Heaven where I find I have some important decisions to make... We're working on developing this information further in our upcoming book/s!  

PawPrints from Heaven: How to Communicate with Pets in the Afterlife will be ready by the end of this Summer! We can't wait to share it with you! 

Love,  Jack 🐾

Keep reading. We are working to answer all these questions and remove all doubt from your mind. Believe! You will meet again one day. You'll see! 💗

Find all of our books here: In the US: https://amzn.to/4b63R77

In the UK: https://amzn.to/3UPgNZe

In Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/stores/Kate-McGahan/author/B00VJ2OM3Y

and all other Amazon Locations Worldwide!!! 

Our Story is Your Story Too: How Jack's Books Came About

Message to you from Kate: 

I rescued Jack at the age of 12 weeks and had the privilege of training him and shaping him into the dog he was destined to be. We started with Obedience, moved into Agility, pressed forward as an uncertified therapy dog. We worked for hospice and Jack spread joy everywhere he went. They say a therapy dog brings much healing and love, but we were one dog and one master and we were the ones who were loved; we had the love of thousands. Jack and I worked the world together side by side until one fateful day when the vet discovered a rectal mass that needed removal. Jack did not recover despite my doing everything and anything to keep him alive. Four days later, Jack died on our kitchen floor. 

Then the pet loss adventure began. I was grieving so much that I couldn't hear him. I couldn't see him, blinded by the grief over the loss of my four-legged best friend. He continually sent me messages from where he was. A lightning bolt came out of a clear blue sky. Birds and butterflies would land on me or dive bomb me. He sent all kinds of messages and signs when I was grieving; when I was crying. There were no pauses in between my tears and his messages fell on deaf eyes and ears. I could not listen. I could not be quiet. All I could do was grieve and grieve and grieve. 

One day a friend helped me to realize that I was still clinging to Jack. In all my grief work with hospice and teaching people to let go, I was still hanging on to it. Exactly six months from the day he crossed the Rainbow Bridge, I was able to scatter his ashes into the air on our favorite wilderness trail. I set him free and set myself free at the same time. I came to realize that I had identified so much as being "Jack's Mom" that when I lost him I began to identify as "Death's Victim". Victim no more, it was time for me to recreate my life without Jack, without being a victim of anything. 

One night - just a few days after I'd spread his ashes, I dusted off my journal and Jack's words came out of my pen. They were in the first "person" and they spoke to me about truth and spoke it in a way that commanded me to listen. They commanded me to write. He was always the more outgoing of the two of us. He would always pull me forward to meet new people and to interact in new ways with the community. He pulled me forward this particular night because he started something that would not stop. He helped me to write a book called "Jack McAfghan: REFLECTIONS" and he comforted me through the process of writing it. He wanted me to write it, not only to work through my own grief, but to comfort, inspire and support others working through theirs. This would come to be the first book of many in the Jack McAfghan Pet Loss Series. 

All the books in the Jack McAfghan Pet Loss Series are available on Amazon Worldwide

or through your favorite bookseller.

In honor of Jack I wish to share our story with others who need to believe that love never ends and that life goes on long beyond one's earthly death. Our story is your story too. 

Jack will tell you: "I am not dead. I am awake.... You want me to wake up but in my death I did wake up and I saw you were still sleeping."  Love never dies.

You Are Not Guilty - of Anything

I'm unhappy to see your Stoic grief.

After all, 

You can only heal what you can feel.

When you don't express, it stays trapped inside

With no way out. 

It turns into anger; it turns into guilt.

Do you love me? 

For if you do, if you really do, 

YOU ARE NOT GUILTY of ANYTHING.

Love and guilt simply cannot coexist. 

Let your love rule and overcome the guilt that you think you have.

Don’t be afraid to feel,

 For only what you feel can you heal.

Don’t be afraid to cry for not all tears are evil.

I wait for your smile but I want you to cry;

Setting grief free brings you closer to me.

Don't you see? Don't you see?

Set it free. Set me free. 

Set us free.

     Love, Jack 🐾

(Rainbow Bridge representative)

Jack 

Postcard from Rainbow Bridge 🐾

I walk along the edge

Of the bridge of many hues,

The Rainbow Bridge which brought me Here

Where I behold the views

Of the one I hold most dear to me

The one who loves me so...

The one who gave my life to me,

The one who let me go.

You walk along the lonely streets 

Remembering our love

Not knowing I watch over 

From my roost in skies above.

A love like this can never die

It's Only Gone from Sight.

I watch over you, the one I love...

Protect you day and night.

And someday when your time has come

I'll make my way back Here

To welcome you with kisses

You, the one I hold so dear. 

-Kate McGahan

2024

The Importance of Sleep - The Healing Power of Dreaming

“I’ve been watching over her one year six months in Earth Time. I have witnessed her tears, her rage and the depths of her sadness. For nights on end I have endured her loneliness and despair in the times when she felt I had forsaken her.  In vain I have reached out to her when she felt most alone. She thought she’d never be happy again.  She didn’t believe she could go on living.  But she did.  Humans do.  She is only human after all.” (Jack McAfghan: Letters from Rainbow Bridge - Chapter 7)

Grief is a very personal thing, but it has a fairly predictable course. First she had to go through the Denial phase. She was in shock, much like someone who has been involved in a serious accident or trauma who keeps saying, ‘this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening to me’. It’s part of grief. 

When someone experiences a great trauma, they go into shock as a survival tactic. Everything goes numb. The person is overwhelmed and the details of life seem meaningless. The mind when it is in this state is not capable of learning, understanding, grasping. The emotions remain submerged, hidden away until the person is ready to start feeling them again. It is the body’s way of healing itself, by protecting the one grieving from the full awareness of the hurt, the pain, the suffering, the change and the devastating loss.

Typically the person goes into hibernation – living life on a type of autopilot until enough healing has taken place to resume somewhat normal functioning… Often this time is filled with restlessness; perhaps even insomnia. 

Healing cannot take place without deep sleep, for the greatest healing takes place when we shut our awareness down and let our natural innate healing abilities take over.   Dreams are an important part of sleep and only in our deepest sleep can the dreams come. Dreams are the meeting places of the soul and it’s where we meet with you to work through things. You don’t actually need to remember the dream for it to help you. Some of you are still waiting for the dream that will change your life. Ask for it, you might get it. Be sure, also, to ask to remember it too, for it is quite possible to have a dream one night and not be able to remember it the next morning. Keep in mind that your subconscious mind is processing and learning even when your conscious mind is asleep. As Kate taught me, I now teach her. Don’t beg! You need to relax about it to have the space to let it in. Just have faith and I will come to you in a way that means something to you and me. Don’t forget to breathe.

Love, Jack 🐾

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