Seppala Kennels 'SledDogBlog'

new seppala kennels page

True to my promise, there is now a new web page on the Seppala Kennels website. And mysteriously the "rainbow bridge blues" are relieved. Not gone! I can still feel exactly the same feeling, but muted, no longer a sharp incapacitating pain at the heart's core. So, that was what BooBoo-Ji wanted, sure enough. A "Rainbow Bridge" page for the Seppalas that are gone but not forgotten at Seppala Kennels in Grizzly Valley in the Yukon Territory. The page is still rudimentary. Not all the departed friends have their photos there yet, but from time to time I add more, as I find time to process their images. Later, perhaps, I'll also add a poem or two, whatever will round the memorial out and give it depth and feeling. Already I find that I visit the page myself in odd moment, just to "be with" the dogs I miss, and it really helps. Thank you, Sepalluna-Ji.

rainbow bridge blues

Close friends in another breed just lost a beloved and venerated old dog. Coming on the heels of losing Sepalluna, feeling their loss somehow seemed to stir up all the emotional turbidity again, this time with memories of Surgut, Nyura, Hurley, Sepalleopard, Sprite, Kidron, Zirconia, Xpace and others all the way back to Ditko of Seppala in 1971. It has held on for several days now, a bad case of the Rainbow Bridge Blues for sure. There's nothing for it but to acknowledge that I'm being told it's time to build a memorial web page for all these little Seppala spirits. I guess BooBoo-Ji's telling me that she wants them to have some recognition, too.

I didn't need yet another project when I'm already juggling so many projects at one time, but so be it. There's no point in resisting this. Gangaji says that, rather than either denying or indulging in our emotions, the best path is simply to experience fully whatever is happening, standing fast without either rushing to meet it or fleeing from it.

So I've got the Rainbow Bridge Blues and I'm building a web page to help myself deal with them. Well, there are worse things I could do with my time.

sepalluna-ji

Today was a hard day for Isa and Jeffrey, as our beloved Sepalluna passed over the Rainbow Bridge. After weeks of illness from abdominal cancer, 'Lluna could no longer walk, no longer wanted to eat, had difficulty breathing, excessive thirst, and awoke in the middle of the night crying in pain. Her brothers Sepalleo, Sepallop and Sepallampo were very concerned about her, and kept asking Isa to please do something to relieve Boo.

It was no kindness to cling to her, and so we let her go. At noon Jeffrey helped her to leave her worn-out body behind, as I have had to do for so many ageing dogs before. Although I will admit I selfishly bawled a bit when I saw how frail and helpless she looked when Isa brought her down to my shack, really I had no doubts today. Boo enjoyed a half-hour with us in the dappled sunshine of the little spruce woods behind my shack, had a last drink of water and settled down for a final nap. It all had a peace and inevitability about it that forbade mourning.

Because BooBoo-Ji, as we called her for the past year, was no ordinary dog! Whether or not anyone believes it, Sepalluna-Ji was an Enlightened, fully Self-realised being. Who knows how many times she had been 'round the Wheel of samsara, but I know that we knew her before, in the 1970s, as Helen of Markovo. Out of compassion, she came back to us again in 1991; before she died, we finally recognised that she had returned for one purpose only, to demonstrate unconditional Perfect Love. That final moment of recognition came when Isa and I were at the absolute nadir of self-confidence in what we are trying to do with the Seppala Siberian Sleddog breed project. We were ready to give up and quietly wind it all down, but 'Lluna somehow prevented that. Instead, we now have an incorporated International Seppala Association, the Working Canine Association of Canada is being revitalised, and everything has mysteriously acquired a new forward momentum.

We know that Sepalluna-Ji has gone nowhere. Where would she go? She will be with us always, as will her mother of dear remembrance, sweet Dreama-Seppalina. With two such spirits at our side to light our pathway, we can feel certain that our progress towards a secure future for Leonhard Seppala's little Siberian sleddogs will be steady and sure.