~ The House That Love Built ~

Hello mi chicas!

 A few of you have asked how I came up with "Heaven's Walk" for my blog.

(I thought I would incorporate it in with White Wednesday at Faded Charm -
which you will understand why as you keep reading.)

 So, grab your cup of coffee and sit back.

Here's the story of how it came to be...

It's really a very simple story.

Sweet and simple.

About a house filled with lots of love...

Years of love.

Unconditional four-legged love.

Hubby and I have been blessed with dogs and cats since we first met.

Brandy was our first rescue girl and my first pet ever.  She was "Dog of the Week" in the local paper. A young, smart, sweet tempered Collie/Shepherd mix who had just given birth to nine puppies. She was a complete joy and was always by my side as I worked in my garden. She was diagnosed with hip dysplasia at nine years old.

Kodey was our protector, defender, and all around 'bad-boy', as Australian Shepherds can sometimes be.  He was Hubby's shadow and loved riding in his truck with him. He was extremely smart. He had kidney/liver failure at 14 years old.

 Shiloh could have been Brandy's sister, except that she was a purebred Belgian Tervuren. Beautiful, elegant, smart, loving, excelling at obedience training and earning her CDX title.

She was the love of my life. She was diagnosed with stomach cancer at the age of 12.

Now, you must know that during the many years that passed that we were "owned" and loved by these wonderful heartbeats at our feet, we were also caring for 12 cats

(yes, you read that right)

who had taken up residence....and multiplied like rabbits over the years...in our shed next door to our lake house. There were cats and kitties of all sizes and colors running all over. It was a total circus! We had so much fun fishing off the dock and watching them play with the bluegills we caught for them. Most of our indoor cats came from these precious litters -

including Libby (daddy's girl through and through)

who loved napping in Maizie's crate.  She passed away at 15 years old five years ago.

Hannah (one overweight lump of love) was Libby's niece.  She was my "special needs child" according to the vet.  "Torties" as cats of her color are called, need a lot of quiet one-on-one time, and she loved to curl up in my lap for that. 
Two years ago at 12 years old, she was diagnosed with a spinal problem and lost the use of her back legs.

Sophie (Hannah's niece) still shares my pillow each night at age 14. She is my bedtime buddy and insists on getting under the covers to curl against my chest.
I fall asleep to her deep purr.
She is tenderhearted and has fur as soft as a rabbit.
Calicos have always been dear to my heart.

Toby was at one time a barn cat, but my girlfriend insisted he was too smart and unique to live outside, and gave him to me.
Toby has some issues.
He thinks he's a dog.
But he is by far the smartest cat we've ever had.  He's incredibly entertaining and follows us all over the house with  his "socky-mon" waiting for us to throw it for him. At 10pm every night, he walks into the living room with sockymon in his mouth and sits in front of hubby....waiting.

Roni adopted us a couple years before we moved to our farmhouse.  She was going to be our barn cat, but an overzealous, overly inquisitive raccoon who wanted to share quarters with her in the barn, gave me the heeby-geebies. 

She now lives very happily in our basement, waiting for periodic belly rubs, and is extremely spoiled by you-know-who...

(Yes....we grow'em big here at Heaven's Walk...)

We brought Tessa, our Belgian Shepherd, home from a breeder in Illinois.  As a puppy, she quickly assumed the nickname, "Tessa the Terror", even though we always thought that she never really quite had both oars in the water.

She's still a cookie short of a full package.

You know what I mean?

It took her two years to pass "kindergarden" in her dog obedience classes.

Sheesh!  How embarrassing. 
But she is a sweetheart.

And gosh, how she loves to swim! She'd swim the length of Gun Lake if we'd let her. She acts like a puppy when her feet touch that water.

She is 14 now and sleeps a lot. 
We can see sadly the writing on the wall - and in her eyes....

She and Toby have always been best buddies.

(Notice the "pre-white" tub and linen closet?)

Maizie Grace was our second rescue girl.  She is now seven years old. She came from a litter of nine. She immediately declared herself Queen, Empress, Head Honcho, and Matriarch of the Shoemaker clan. She's our clown, our snuggler, won't hesitate to tell you what she thinks, and like clockwork - will inform you that it IS time for dinner.....like NOW...like right at 5:30pm.  She loves her broccoli.

But she isn't too wild about baths - because she usually gets laughed at 

- which results in her pouting for a while.

She is incredibly smart, faithful, and eager to please, but with a good dose of attitude which we love. She was diagnosed with a slight case of Cushing's disease last year, which means the cortisol levels in her blood are elevated.  We're keeping a close eye on her and giving her Wheatgrass tablets every day along with fresh fruits and veggies in her organic food.

She's the type of dog that you want to live with you forever and ever...
She's as close to perfect as you can get (but don't tell her that).

She's never without her pink Loofa or her Baby (huge Pooh bear),
and always - always - always has to have the last word - as you can see in the photo above.

Knowing how much all of these beloved pets meant to us over the years, and knowing deep in our souls that we will be seeing them again in heaven, Hubby commissioned a friend of ours, Art Smith, from Gun Lake, to do a watercolor painting of all of our dogs, and surprised me one Christmas morning with it.

I bawled.

It was beautiful.

It brought back so many emotional memories for me.

Hubby and Art had decided to title it "Heaven's Walk".

It's a painting of all of our dogs, past and present, romping in the snow along a stream, with Hubby and I walking behind them.

It reminds me of what the Rainbow Bridge just might be like when we see them all again one day...

It hangs in our kitchen where we can see it every time we walk in the door or sit at the table for dinner. We feel surrounded by their sweet love.

(See it back there next to the window?)

To commemorate our little loved ones even more, I commissioned a gal I found on-line to create a house sign for Hubby that now hangs next to our front door.

It proclaims that

this is the house that love built.

Unconditional...

four-legged...

love.

{ Love } to you all....

~ laurie

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. Her bright eyes are intent; Her eager body quivers. Suddenly she begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, her legs carrying her faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together....

~Author unknown