Boddhisatva is a Buddhist term for an enlightened being, in the Mahayana school it describes those who dedicate their life to end the suffering of others, who choose to reincarnate so that they can continue to help all sentient beings. A Boddhisatva can take any living form…
The first time I saw Freddy, a purebred Pekingese of such lineage and conformation that he could become a potential best of show winner at Crufts, he was locked inside a parrots cage!
How could this happen? Originally from a respectable breeder, he was a gift to an older lady whose canine companion was tragically mauled. Sadly, she felt that she couldn’t handle a puppy, and Freddy was returned, the first in a series of unfortunate events which saw this little dog have six homes in as many months.
Despite all of this, he was a gregarious little creature. It was my mother’s birthday, and Freddy was ‘given’ to her. There was a party that night, and Freddy ran to meet everyone, already demanding attention and food from them. It felt like he had always been part of the family.
He especially loved my grandmother Norma. She used to buy a new toy for him every week. He used to ‘smile’ at her, something that Pekingese can do, particularly when they are older, is stick their lower teeth out in a grin. Freddy could do this intentionally in order to get a smile or a laugh and would do this even when he was unwell or in pain.
At three years old Freddy was paralysed due to a disc in his back and required an operation from which he never fully recovered. Despite being on painkillers and cortisone for the rest of his life, Freddy was still a happy loving companion, helping us through a marriage breakup, financial worries, and our own health problems. He was the kind of dog whose personality was so large, his very presence provided comfort.
We had Freddy for ten years or so, before he started to have seizures, which became more frequent and violent, and we had to put him to sleep. His death was a hard one to recover from… yet such was his nature that he found a way help my mother, all of us.
It was my birthday, and mum had brought out my presents, Freddy loved birthdays, anyone’s, as he always got a present too. On this occasion, the first after his death, a small notebook threw itself onto the floor from a shelf. It landed open, and on the back page, there was a glued photo of Freddy!
We took it as a sign that he was with us and wanted to be part of my birthday. We didn’t know how we could include him, but we patted his tummy, and then mum had the idea to give Freddy a present by placing a sticker of a toy on the photo. It then became a tradition, to periodically give Freddy a ‘present’ in such a manner.
The photo became a link to our beloved Freddy, which eased some of the pain, for we knew that he was always there for us, although we never expected he would find a way to help when we needed him most.
Nanna became very unwell, and she was sent to hospital with a low blood cell count. They gave her two blood transfusions and an iron infusion. Mum and I went to see her each day and could see that she was fading fast and had become non-responsive.
That morning we grabbed a notebook as we left the house, so that we could write a note for my Grandmother, should she wake up after we left. When preparing to leave the hospital that evening, mum brought the book from her bag and It was only when she was writing the note, that she realised that in her haste she had grabbed the book with Freddy’s photo! At first, Mum was scared to leave the book there, what if the book got accidentally thrown out and she lost him? She paused for a moment before bringing the book with his photo up to her face, and asked him to look after my grandmother, to either bring her back or help her transition peacefully to the other side. She kissed his photo, and then my grandmother, as did I, and we left, expecting to hear from the hospital that night.
Morning came, without any news, and we had breakfast and went straight back to the hospital…
“Hello you two!” she said to us smiling as she sat up in her bed. It was a miracle! She had made a complete recovery.
There was no doubt in our mind that Freddy had brought her back to us.
Years passed. I wanted another smaller dog, but Mum insisted that she did not want another Pekingese, she could not deal with the pain of losing one again after Freddy, but eventually we decided it was time.
When we went to get Gordon, our second Pekingese, he was on sale! He had an undescended teste and was therefore not suitable for breeding. Although he came straight to a loving forever home, Gordon’s life was not easy, and he almost died due to a botched desex operation. We soon found that Gordon and Freddy shared many similarities in character, but there were also some remarkable parallels. Gordon was almost paralysed at the same age, and suffered from recurring interdigital cysts, which gave him a lot of pain. They are so alike that I still sometimes call out Freddy instead of Gordon. I can’t say whether Gordon is a reincarnation of Freddy, or a continuation. Both had the gentlest of natures, an abundance of love for everybody and everything, and they shared a special link with my grandmother.
My grandmother, Norma, was older now, and had become more and more infirm. After a fall she entered a nursing home, and we visited her daily. Gordon gave much joy to her, but he also took it upon himself to relieve the suffering of many of the residents. He became an unofficial service dog, giving them love and attention, even if he was in pain himself. A few residents kept photos of Gordon beside their bed, so much love that they had for him.
Sadly, there came a time when my grandmother’s health deteriorated. She had stopped eating, was bedridden, and was facing end-of-life. It could have been days, or weeks, but it was now Gordon’s turn to provide comfort to her. He rested his chin on her leg so gently, his breath even producing a small smile on my grandmother’s face as she slipped in and out of consciousness, before later passing away.
The love both these Pekingese had for my grandmother, the love they had for everybody. Is why we call them our Bodhisattvas.
Issue 1 - 22/09/2022 by Adam Nathan Wieland