MYSTICAL DOGS: Animals as Guides to Our Inner Life ~ Jean Houston

“For many years, I have been a student of spirituality and states of consciousness. For many more years than that, I’ve been a student of dogs,” says bestselling author Jean Houston, whose study of this subject is the basis of Mystical Dogs. Houston has spent a lifetime bridging the worlds of animals and humans, exploring a realm that pet owners have glimpsed and indigenous peoples have known for millennia. The author identifies dogs, with their deceptively uncomplicated, joyous, loving nature, as custodes animi, guardians of our souls. She shows how animals, particularly dogs, are often the best spiritual teachers. For example, in Houston’s hands, a seemingly simple story, such as a man saying goodbye to his beloved dog, becomes a striking metaphor about personal and planetary transformation.

Loyal Chinese Dog (Video) Refuses to Leave Owners Grave

A dog in China has gone a week without food in the chilly city of Qingdao, refusing to leave its owner’s grave. The loyal Chinese dog has touched the hearts of local villagers who, upset and concerned about its health, have brought the dog food and are building the loyal dog a kennel.

The loving yellow dog with a sweet face and soulful eyes belonged to a man named Lao Pan, who recently died at the age of 68.

Villagers were concerned after the loving pooch refused to eat or leave its master’s gravesite, and took the dog back to the village to feed it. He took the food, but still returned to take up guard at Pan’s final resting place

Now they are building a kennel to protect the dog from the cold local weather, and plan to continue feeding him for as long as he chooses to stay at the graveside of his owner.

The grave itself is a crude pile of dirt topped with bricks to mark its location. The accompanying video shows the loving pup being lured with food and attention. It’s heartbreaking.