The Dog Who Knew She Was Going To Die

Today's post features several themes I have written about previously: white feathers, butterflies, dog's intuition and signs from those who have passed away.

"A few years ago my mother came to live with me. She was ill and couldn't leave the house. My beautiful Samoyed dog, Diamond, and she became devoted to each other.

In early 2007, Diamond started refusing to go for a walk, which was unusual for her. She would only go into the garden then return to lie near Mum all day.

A few weeks after this began, Mum took a turn for the worse. She died in July of that year.

The next morning Diamond was at the door wanting to go for a walk - something she hadn't done for months. It was as if she'd known that Mum was going to die and wanted to stay with her. When I opened the door, there was a white feather on the step.

I'd read that when a butterfly lands near someone, it's a loved one trying to make contact. When diamond and I reached the garden gate a beautiful red butterfly landed on my dog's head, between her ears, and stayed there for the hour long walk. Diamond didn't mind and it flew away when we reached our gate.

Tears were streaming down my face. I felt sure it was Mum wanting to be close to Diamond and telling her that it was OK now to go for walks.

Over the past few years I've found white feathers in strange places at times that were important dates for Mum."

~ Marian Rusby, Ramsgate.

Other Random Posts:
Miles Of Smiles And The Flap Of A Butterfly's Wing
The Meaning Of White Feathers As Messages From The Dead
The Sixth Sense Of A Dog Who Could Sense Ghosts

The Synchronicity And Coincidence Of Butterflies And Dragonflies

It's interesting how life weaves it's web with the aid of synchronicity. This is what I mean. I had decided to publish the following coincidence example, but then thought that it wasn't really sufficient for a full post.

"While watching television, I heard an unfamiliar noise, which turned out to be my car alarm.

I found no obvious reason, but I suddenly saw a butterfly fluttering around inside the car. What film had I set up to record that evening? The Butterfly Effect!"

~ K Willis, Leicester.

I therefore decided to search on Google the words 'butterfly coincidence'. This led me to a September 2013 post by Mary DeTurris Poust with the title of Convergence, coincidence, and cosmic connections.

In the post she writes: "... I was talking with a priest I know about some issues I needed to grapple with on retreat, he made a comment about being like a butterfly, and I responded: "I’m so not a butterfly; I’m more of a dragonfly." And that was that, a comment made in jest without much thought."

Shortly afterwards Mary was looking for a religious icon, "... but instead I found a notecard from a dear - and very holy - woman who died more than a year ago. It had a beautiful watercolour dragonfly painted on the front of it."

She reached the retreat centre, "... and within 30 seconds a giant dragonfly landed in the grass right in front of me. A few minutes later, another one zoomed by. As I went to my car later that evening to get something, a dragonfly buzzed right in front of me in the parking lot. And I smiled every time."

Finally she tells how she was sitting at her favourite prayer spot having a deep, heart-to-heart silent conversation with God. She writes, "I reached a point of peace, an interior place where I posed a question, accepted that I had to let it go, and then asked God to please take care of it. And within five seconds a dragonfly landed on the dock right next to my chair. It was the only one I saw that day, but it showed up at the exact right time."

I decided then to visit Mary's home page, it's an interesting blog by the way. This was on the 26th of August, and her post for that day, What are you chasing?", just happens to have an image of a butterfly for illustration purposes.

I thought that would be an adequate ending for this post, but there's one more synchro. As I finished writing a butterfly came and sat on the windowsill of my office.

This got me thinking about some of the posts on this blog where butterflies have paid their part. Some people believe they may be messengers from deceased loved ones, or perhaps some sort of sign.

There's meaning in those butterflies. And, I guess, in dragonflies too!

Other Random Recent Posts:
The Telegram That Told Of A Death
The Cornish Bakers Weird Coincidence
Sammy Rescues Lucy From The Dinosaurs At Eden

The 500 Year Old Cornish Stone Bridge: What Tales It Could tell

There's an old stone bridge that I sometimes walk over just outside of the town of St.Austell, Cornwall. It no longer carries traffic, other than perhaps a few cyclists. The river banks are now overgrown and, after the very hot weather we have been having in Cornwall, the water is low - but it is there, beneath the middle arch.

I always look into the water as I walk over the bridge because the same River Vinnick continues along the opposite side of the road to where I live.

As the roadway is now, unfortunately, covered with tarmac it's easy to forget that bridges like this are an important part of history. This West Bridge, as it's called, is at least 500 years old, likely much more. We know this because it was mentioned by someone called John Leyland in 1538. He was King Henry VIII's Chaplain and was sent out around the country to gather material for a history of England.

Leland didn't seem to think much of St.Austell as he wrote (in old English), "the poore toun of St.Austelles is nothing notable but the paroch chirch. And there is a bridge of stone of the same name."

The bridge and the church remain today,

Back then the bridge would have carried all of the traffic to and from the west of the town. Today only a few people like myself cross the bridge. How times have changed, but I wonder who else has walked over the river here during the last five hundred years and what tales they could tell.

Below is a copy of a now scratched etching of West Bridge from 1803. The river looked faster flowing back then.

The tower of the church can be seen to the right of the etching and below is how the tower looks today - virtually unchanged,

As I walked along the riverside I noticed a peacock butterfly on the dry grass.

I'm sure there is a magical meaning in the symbolism of crossing a bridge and seeing a butterfly - but I'll think about that later.

Other St.Austell Posts:
The Little Dog Looking Down From The Top Of St Austell Church Tower
St Austell Cornwall Feast Week
Where To See Daphne Du Maurier In Cornwall

For more photos and posts on Cornwall go to: Mike's Cornwall

The Butterfly As A Sign From The Deceased

I've written previously about how a butterfly is sometimes said to be a sign from someone who has recently died. This is something with which the English actress Lysette Anthony agrees. When her mother, the former actress and producer Bernadette Bennett, died, "Extraordinary things started to happen." Here's Lysette's experience.

"I saw my first ghost at the Windsor Theatre and I discovered he was a well known ghost there.

I know this sounds bonkers, but in the play I had this speech right at the end. It was a sad speech and that is when I would pour out my grief, crying real tears on stage.

One evening there was this massive butterfly and one of the other actors commented on it being an 'old soul'. The butterfly was having a lovely time fluttering around the set. When I came to do my final scene it landed on my white hat and it stayed there until the end of the play.

I like to think that was my mother taking her last bow."

Other Butterfly Posts:
His Dead Son Visited Him As A Butterfly
Chips And A Butterfly: Memories And A Visit From The Spirit World
The Law Of Re-Embodiment Or Reincarnation

Chips And A Butterfly: Memories And A Visit From The Spirit World

Chips from a traditional Fish & Chip shop

I felt a bit down on Friday as some results of a blood test I had weren't quite as good as I expected. "I know," I said to Karin in the evening, "Let's go for a walk." Can't beat a walk for getting your head in order.

It was chilly and windy and when we went out of our front door we just followed our nose(es) - as my mum would have said. We found we were heading towards our local town. Before reaching there, however, we passed a traditional British Fish & Chip shop.

Being a vegetarian I hadn't been in there for donkey's years but Karin asked, "Fancy some chips?"

I knew they would most likely be fried in some sort of animal fat but I still answered, "Yes."

As soon as we opened the wrapper, while continuing our walk, the smell and taste immediately transported me back to when I was a child.

Mum and I always visited my Gran on a Sunday evening while Dad got ready for work the next day. If I'd been good, on the way home, I was allowed a bag of chips - and back then the outer wrapper was still newspaper.

I remember eating the chips, while walking home with Mum, on a cold evening and that's where it seemed I was again last Friday.

Lost in my own world Karin said, "You're quiet." Then she said, "I know what you are thinking about - your mum."

That's the trouble of being married for a long time, spouses often know what you are thinking! So I told her about my memories of walking home as a child from visiting my Gran, while finishing off the chips.

It's strange where smell and taste can take you.

The next day (Saturday) I had been lopping some branches off a tree that had got too big in our garden. Karin came out to see how I was getting on - or maybe it was to supervise! But whatever, she said, "Whose your friend?"

I had no idea what she was talking about. "On your jacket. The Butterfly."

And sure enough sitting there was a butterfly, even though they aren't usually about this time of year. Goodness knows how long it had been with me, but it continued to stay with me as I carried on with the secateurs and tidied up the branches I had already cut. The butterfly didn't move, just sat there as I bent and moved about.

It stayed with me for ages even when I started to put the tools away in the garage. As I took off my boots though, the butterfly flew over to the wall and sat very still again. When I next turned around it was gone. The garage window was open so it could have flown away.

This made me remember a post I wrote this time last year His Dead Son Visited Him As A Butterfly. This is a story about how the English actor, Ricky Tomlinson, is convinced his son Clifton, who had died, visited him as a butterfly. Ricky said:

 "... but he [the butterfly] stayed with me all night and I just thought that this was wonderful. I felt his presence, it was Clifton. I was made up. I loved him, he was a cracking lad."

Later Karin remarked about how she wondered if the butterfly was someone visiting me. I'd been wondering the same.

Who knows, perhaps chips and a butterfly can be more meaningful than most people would imagine.

Other 67 Not Out Posts:
His Dead Son Visited Him As A Butterfly
Laparoscopic Nephrectomy Coincidences And Synchronicity
The Unicorn The Virgin And Opening The Third Eye