What would the world be like if humans were more like dogs?

Trigger warning: I describe a dog being put down by a vet in the first three paragraphs. But it is spiritual and beautiful. Just be aware of it before you read.

I went with my mother to the vet to support her, as she put her dog, Tino, to sleep forever. It was quite sad. He was a beautiful, award winning, old shetland sheepdog, and had come to the end of his life. He was experiencing liver failure, having seizures, and it was time to go.

The moment Tino died I felt his spirit leave his body. Even though the poor little doggie named Tino on the table had just died, the spirit of Tino was very much alive, and was hovering around my head. I felt it strongly.

And then he spoke to me.

It was so clear, powerful, his essence was palpable. He was substantial. I heard him telepathically in my mind. He forgave my mum for the procedure, he said he understood. Then he said he had a good life with her. I wanted to say something in return, to reassure him. He hung there, in the air, as if he didn’t know what to do next. I didn’t know either, I’ve not done much psychopomp with animals. Knowing he was a breeding dog, I suggested that he probably had lots of grand-baby-puppies that he didn't know about, that he could go visit, now that he was free. He suddenly wanted to see them and got quite excited. A soul, getting excited? But I could feel his excitement - it was a lifting of the energy in the room. It was electric and quite fantastic to experience. At this point, there was no doubt whatsoever in my mind that we were communicating with each other.

So here was the spirit of a dog excited at the prospect of being able to visit his grand-babies. “How do I see them? How do I see them?” he asked me. It was almost funny, in a way. I answered him honestly and said, ‘I don't know. But maybe I know someone who can help.” Then I called on my angel and asked him, and, within seconds, Tino’s spirit was gone.

There had been a very heavy presence in the room, and then it was there no longer. I felt sad, I suddenly missed him, and wanted to keep talking We were only getting started and I was enjoying it. But a conversation with me wasn’t going to serve him. So I said goodbye and let him go.

As I walked back to my car I replayed our moment of communion over and over again in my head, feeling honoured for the gift of it, grateful for the opportunity. And then I tried to imagine how all of that beautiful soul essence had fit into the small dog on the table - there must be some kind of folding or collapsing, like a fan, or origami. My mother’s grief kept me grounded and in the moment.

Later that evening I looked at my own dog, Milo, who also has a little body and a strong presence. He's very needy. I have found myself on many occasions getting short tempered with him, angry and upset because I want to rest at home, and he is always wanting something from me. But after meeting with Tino I had a different perspective on Milo. Now it's not that I didn't know there was a soul inside his body. It was just, perhaps, that the communication between me and the soul of a dog had never been so strong, or so possible. I had a newfound respect for dogs, and that spilled into my relationship with Milo. I vowed to be more tolerant.

However, several weeks later and I’m short tempered again with my little dog. He is so disobedient, even though he’s very good with the children he thinks when I’m not looking he can do what he wants, and it irritates the hell out of me. My daughter, Mya, is a real dog person. I can see her having many dogs as she grows up. She has so much compassion and love, and much more tolerance for Milo than I do. Me, I think I prefer cats, which is funny, because I was always told that cats were terrible pets. My father and brother didn’t like cats, and I thought I didn’t like cats too, because they told me I didn’t. I got a cat just over a year ago, for my youngest daughter. But he and I bonded, much to her upset. My cat gives me space and I give him space, and we get along just fine.

So today I took my space by going for a walk in the park, alone. Forgetting of course that it was Sunday, the park was busy. I had to queue for a parking space, and there was a large line of families queuing up to get coffee. I let go of my need for an after-walk coffee, but I kept walking because it was less windy there than at home and the sun was out. I love the winter sun.

And of course, many people were out walking their dogs. There was a particularly friendly Dalmatian there who insisted on saying hello to every other dog he met. As I walked past I happened to overhear his owner exclaim, “What would the world be like if humans were more like dogs, wanting to say hello to everyone they meet?”

As I walked I thought to myself - we don’t do that because we’d never get anything done! We just don't have the time, there are too many people around, we would be meeting and greeting all day.

I believe we did do that at one point, though. I do believe that we did say hello to everybody that we met. That we knew everyone in our community, intimately. We would support them, work with them, and they would reciprocate.

So what would such a world look like?

It all comes back to space. We were not designed to live together at such close quarters. AND we were not designed to live in cities. Think about chickens in the cage, what do they do? They pluck, and pick and attack each other. I’ve seen photos of battery hen farms where they take the beak off the chicken because they peck each other to death, being so closely together.

This leads me to think that part of the problem that we have with relationships is because we're too close to each other - we're on top of each other all the time. Adult children forced to live with their elderly parents because they cannot afford a house of their own.

And smartphones bring yet another layer of closeness - texting, Instagram stories and Tik Tok. No sooner do you have a thought you can send it to your friend by text, who then texts you in a similar way. The internet floods into our inner-net and we have trouble telling them apart. Although I do believe this is stimulating our telepathic abilities - how often do you think of a friend now, and receive a text from them almost at the same time? Or do you pick up your phone at exactly the moment a message comes in for you?

I saw a video last year (when I was doing my down-the-rabbit-hole research) about resources, explaining how there are enough resources in the world for everyone, and that we are not overpopulated, we are just badly organised. They said cities are a deliberate construct, to keep us in the drama and difficulty of what it means to be so closely connected to another human being. It distracts us from our spiritual growth and from doing our inner work, which makes us empowered, sovereign beings. Deliberate? Now you know why. (If you can find the video or have one similar do share it in the comments as I am unable to find it,)

Think about the elites - in their big houses with plenty of space, houses with extensions and spaces where they can lounge around all day and maybe never be seen or heard by whoever else happens to be in the house at the time. They also have a summer houses I’m sure, and winter houses. They don't live in close quarters. They are the ones funding the design of these cities. They’re probably laughing at us all the time. The little people. And now they suggest that we live in smart cities, like The Line.

Where do we go from here?

People cooped up like battery chickens needing drugs to stay calm, because they can’t remove our beaks but they can remove our will to live and break our spirit? No thank you. Blade Runner is just a story, not a prediction of our future, isn’t it?

I have to bring it back to my walking, feet on the ground, winter sunshine through the trees and dogs. It’s too easy to pull away and fall into some tangental pit that becomes impossible to pull myself out of.

That’s what will happen to many of us this year if we are not mindful. Perhaps we really do need to be more like dogs. We just have too much our our minds.