Patch: There was something about that dog

Patch is gone from this world, at least from his most recent canine form. He had an aggressive and inoperable cancer and had to be euthanized. Since his adoption, he had made his home and life at Peaceful Passings Senior Dog Rescue, where Patch served as Vice President, Pack Leader, chief nurse, aide, assistant, and counselor for the other canine residents. He had communication skills like no dog I've seen. His service to the humans of the household was invaluable and irreplaceable.

This was Patch when he arrived,
he was a hot damn mess, medically speaking.

I've written about Patch many times before and after his adoption because there was just something special about that dog. Anyone who knows me even slightly knows that I'm not a religious person. I'm not even what you would call "spiritual," but I've referred to Patch in the past as a "Christ-dog." You could see something in his eyes. Some people said he had an "old soul." I don't know, but I do know that everyone who met him wanted to touch him. Even when he was skin and bones with infected skin and raw, open sores. Wherever we went, people's hands would reach out to touch him, as if there was something both to be given and to be gained from the contact. If I were to indulge in spiritual speculation I would suggest that he had been reincarnated to the point that he had reached the highest plane of his physical and spiritual existence. I'm not sure what higher form he could take than the perfect being he had been as the dog named Patch, so maybe this is where he moves from Dog to God.

He could speak with his eyes and
read your thoughts and emotions with them as well.

All dogs are special in their own way, each and every one of them. But there was something about Patch that defies understanding, something I've not seen in the hundreds (thousand?) dogs who have passed this way.

Both the human and canine worlds are diminished by his passing.