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.
If you've ever lost someone you love, you know what it's like to seek comfort and understanding in your grief. Join Jack McAfghan on his journey to Rainbow Bridge and back where he gives glimpses of the world to come and teaches us about the power of healing over grief. Jack's stories are the story of life, love, loss and renewal. All of the books in the Jack McAfghan Series are available at Amazon Worldwide and wherever great books are sold! Our story is your story too.
The Jack McAfghan Series
More to Come!
Monday
No Matter How Far: Love Never Dies and Communication Never Ends
Saturday
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.
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.
Friday
Religion Versus Spirit
Dear Jack,
First, I want to thank you and Jack for somehow coming into my life this summer though now I believe it was all by Design and a gift from my Toula. You have helped me tremendously and I am finally finding peace that I haven't known since my Toula passed on 11/26/20.
I am however hung up on 2 things. I am a Greek Orthodox Christian and I feel as though I have sinned. First in taking the life of another living creature (I. E. Toula's euthanasia decision) and second in her cremation, (I. E. Destroying God's temple). How do I get past these things to continue my healing?
-Dina
Dear Dina,
Those rules were written a long time ago before we had euthanasia and pet cremation. Things can change over 100's of years.
#1) If you looked at the situation from the eyes of God, you would not want a creature to suffer unnecessarily when it can be brought peace.
#2) God's temple is only our body as long as our spirit lives in our body. So at the time of cremation, it was no longer Toula's "temple". Toula vacated the moment she passed and she went straight to God, her spirit joining with His.
I hope this helps somehow. I know religion can run deep but I do not see any sin anywhere. I see only love and compassion and those are the things that God values most in His people.
Love, Jack 🐾


