This will likely make you cry

Posted on Facebook:

We say “Hello” and show comfort at the time of need, as the doors of Diamond Cut Loyalty Rescue open to save another when they are cornered to the wall of a shelter, with no thought left of where to go or what tomorrow will hold for them. They fall with illness, beaten and scared; fought and left to strive on their own; shot and killed by police to lay dead on the street. How does that make you a man? Fought by dogfighters and slain if there is a loss. How are they called humans?

I bow my head in remembrance of JACK, a mixed breed young man who left this rescue to Rainbow Bridge. When all failed Jack, and no one else stood by his side, a man walked to him and reached out his hand. Signed on the dotted line and walked out of the shelter, just hours before his life would end. The man put Jack in the car and left the old world behind. On the road to a rescue where his head was held, with prayer from the voice of the man who cared for him at the hour of need and cried the tears of thousands who suffer alone. Then on a trip to a new foster home, for someone to care all hours of the day and into the night. To a small little family of many cats who welcomed Jack, and 5 other canine companions who showed no discomfort to a boy in need of friendship and love.

Jack had many friends in the few months since April 29th, when he was saved from death in a shelter. My heart is heavy because Jack, 11 years old, left to the entrance of the Bridge because of an illness he fought so hard, but could not overcome. He will return and this time, he will be carried to the doors of this rescue, Diamond Cut Loyalty, where his ashes shall be placed in the view of the final “second chance.”

Thank you to the one person who cared for Jack with gentle hands, great love and with no concern for personal sacrifice at all hours of the night and the day. Thank you to the one person who was with him as he closed his eyes and who spoke softly to him, telling him that he was “going home.”

Farewell to you, boy. On the day that I leave this world and stand before the Almighty, may the ashes return to dust of the earth, and I will hold you in my arms as Judgement is before me. I shall cry no more.
Rest In Paradise, Jack. July 10, 2013.

Ronnie Lucero
Diamond Cut Loyalty Canine Rescue & Pit Bull Rehabilitation
Portland, Oregon

St. Orres

From my Beast Crawl piece

It’s not because of love. It’s something entirely different. It’s seeing someone as a vessel, a container to be filled with one’s own hopes and fantasies. Chase the vessel and you chase a mirage. Cross that desert and drink from an empty golden cup.

Found myself writing this on Facebook

When I first moved here, I thought I wouldn't stay.

That's not because I didn't love it. I adored it. I adored it and then I hated it and then I adored it some more. I left it once, I left it again. I left for weeks and months at a time, but I couldn't bring myself to entirely turn in my key.

Since 1997, I have racked up five different addresses, four phone numbers, but no calling birds or turtle doves. And the entire time I have said to myself, I will leave someday. Because there are other places I want to explore.

That is still true. And so I am torn. I still want to live in New York, London, Sydney if Adam would deign to visit Australia. Yet I've built this life here. As I get older, my definitions of freedom and boundary begin to flip-flop. I don't know if I feel free or not for having built this life.

Beast Crawl!