While I was working at a plan to bring Kate together with Immy, Kate was completely caught up in her grief. She couldn't look forward, she kept looking back. If she looked beside her she would only see me. Everywhere she looked, she saw me. Every spare thought was me. Every free moment was spent looking for me; longing for me. She was inconsolable. This went on for days, weeks, months. You'll read about it in my book, "Jack McAfghan", how she finally was able to move beyond her grief.
I crossed over the Rainbow Bridge early on August 1st and six months later to the day, on February 1st, she was able to set my ashes free and to bring peace to both of us. April 1st, she finished writing our book. It took her the next month to get it formatted and to learn Microsoft Word after having used it for 20 years and never knowing what it was capable of.
Somewhere during that time, her heart began to stir and she knew she was ready to love again. But not yet. She wasn't quite there. I had planted the desire for Afghan Hound in her heart, and all of a sudden she was looking at rescue sites. Then one night she went to the Dogs For Sale sites. She landed on PuppyFind and fell in love with a 9 month old Afghan Hound named "Dark Green Collar". I know why she fell in love with her. I think for awhile she was looking for me in another dog and Dark Green Collar had the same color collar I always had but mostly the look in her eyes in the photo was the way I would look at Kate. The eyes are the windows and Dark Green Collar's eyes were the magnet. They were supposed to be. They were supposed to draw Kate to Montana.
She wrote the breeder, Brian Wood of Shining Mountain Afghans, in Loma,
Montana. She inquired about Dark Green Collar. Her siblings, Red
Collar, Blue Collar and Light Green Collar were available too, but she
only had eyes for the Dark Green girl. Brian was patient and helpful
and they corresponded over several months. Brian's honesty,
forthrightness, knowledge and inherent kindness made it easy for her to
trust him but she just couldn't seem to move forward. At one point Brian
laughed and said to her "Of course, if you wait long enough, someone
else will get her."
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Decision Point and Afghan Hounds |