IN BETWEEN DOGS - Part I - PROMISE: How Volunteering Can Help A Bereaved Human Recover From The Loss Of A Beloved Pet.

An Intermittent Series About A Dogless Woman Volunteering at an Animal Shelter

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Hello dear Substack readers—

This long essay was the prequel to my final series for BARK magazine—a series called “IN BETWEEN DOGS” which had only a few installments before the magazine sadly folded in 2020. Plus, my wonderful editor at Bark, Claudia Kawczynska, thought that my writing was starting to get too “woo-woo” at this point for Bark readers. (At some point in my dog-writing career, I started to open up to the fact that I am a weird-ass energy healer, and a Buddhist practitioner, and a devotee of crystals and sound healing and mantra, and all that wonderful “alternative” stuff. My dog Chloe—who was partial to the Maha Mantra— benefitted enormously from the woo-woo. Just saying. Anyway, here is the piece, which appeared in Bark magazine some time in 2003 or 2004 [I can’t find the original PDF]:

Author Lee Harrington used to avoid visiting her local animal shelter because she feared the experience would be depressing, and because her own dog kept her plenty busy. But when the loss of her beloved dog led her to the place she feared most--she discovered that not only was the animal shelter not depressing; it was absolutely uplifting. Find out why, and how, in this new blog series by the author of popular Bark columns "Rex and the City" and "The Chloe Chronicles."

SERIES TITLE: "In Between Dogs"

Part I - How Volunteering Can Help A Bereaved Human Recover From The Loss Of A Beloved Pet.

By Lee Harrington

We all have our own particular ways of grieving the loss of our beloved pets. Some of us go straight out to the shelter and adopt a new friend right away, to continue the cycle of unconditional love that life with a dog perpetuates. Some of us vow to never, ever take in another animal again, believing in our grief-state that the pain of another loss—or even the joy of a new, huge love—would be too much to bear. And some of us hover somewhere in between, craving the love and presence of another animal, knowing deep in our hearts that another adoption is inevitable, but remaining somewhat wary of forming a new bond. I call this the "in-between dogs" state. Not now, those of us in the in-between state tell ourselves. Not yet. Wait until the moment is right.