Angel Apollo is our October 18, 2015 Pup of the Week

“Aroooooooooo!”  I heard this just outside my window.  I was snuggled in my bed and hoped the Aroooooooooo was not meant for me.  I rolled over.

“Aroooooooooo Foley!”  I opened my eyes and sighed.  I got out of bed then put on my slippers and robe.  I stoked the fire.  It had started getting cold here at the Bridge.  “Aroooooooooo Foley!”  

“I am coming!” I said, trying not to sound grumpy even though I knew I was a bad-waker-upper.  I opened the door and Angel Apollo nervously entered my house.

“Arooooooooo Foley I need to go visit my Mom and let her know everything will be OK but I can’t find a butterfly, a hummingbird, nothing that will let me borrow it’s body.  Aroooooooooo what am I going to do?” Apollo asked pacing across my floor.

I curled up in my favorite rocking chair.  “Apollo, you need to calm down,” I told him.  “Tell me what is wrong.  And stop starting every sentence with Aroooooooooo.”  (He did this when he was nervous.)

“Aroooooooooo,” he said.  (He couldn’t help himself.)  “It’s my Mom.  She has too much going on.  You know she is one of the greatest rescue Moms of all time.  I try so hard to help her find homes for all these pups.  And my Dad is still at the rehabilitation facility to get him healthy again.  He has hardly been home since spring.  Mom sliced her hand open earlier this summer and last night she had a really bad asthma attack.  it is because of all this stress.  My wonderful pack:  Bishop, Napa, Munchie and the others stayed with her all night to make sure she was comforted but she needs to see me.”  He collapsed in a nervous heap in front of my fireplace.  

Poor Apollo.  He has been here longer than any friend I have had but he has never rested in peace.  He is always moving:  To get his Mom dogs who need rescuing; to find those rescued dogs forever homes; to watch over his Mom his Dad, and his pack.   And he has a very strong connection to his Mom.  He knows when he is needed.  But the weather has turned cold and it was hard to find a flying creature who would let their body be used for Apollo’s trip.

(For those readers not familiar with Rainbow Bridge and the Immortal World it sits just on the other side of the River of Life.  You can cross Rainbow Bridge to the Immortal side but you can’t cross back to the Mortal side. Flying creatures can wing their way across the river and they often let us use their bodies to visit our families.  Birds and butterflies are our favorite choices but when the weather gets cold they won’t let us use their bodies.  They complain we return them too cold.)

I told Apollo that I, being a former lawyer and now a judge, was sure I could talk some flying creatures into letting Apollo borrow their body.  We climbed high up into the hills where the birds were chirping in the warm sunshine.  Apollo begged, and I used my most persuasive arguments, but none of the bird would acquiesce and the butterflies doubted they would survive.

Then a wasp landed on Apollo’s nose and said he would do it.  I told the wasp to buzz off.  Wasps are dirty annoying bugs and for Apollo to fly all the wall from Rainbow Bridge to his Mom’s house on wasp’s wings would be very taxing.  It was possible he would not make it back at all.  But Apollo immediately said yes and I could not persuade him otherwise.  He switched bodies with the wasp who immediately used his Apollo body to devour a steak.  Meanwhile Apollo fluttered those little wings hard and flew to his Mom’s house.

No dog has ever had as big a heart and as strong a will as Angel Apollo.  He flew,and flew, and flew, until he reached his Mom’s window where he could clearly be seen against the blue sky.  He narrowly avoided serious injury when his brother Bishop wanted to squash him but his Mom stopped him.  She could tell by the wasp’s glow, it’s vibe of kindness, the connection that they have always had, that this was Angel Apollo coming to check on her and she knew if Apollo could travel so far then everything would soon be OK.

I nervously waited on the hill for his return.  It began to get dark.  The Bridge can be hard to find in the dark.  Then I saw a small, dark figure moving towards me in the sunset.  It was Angel Apollo in wasp’s clothing.  He fluttered on his his own side, now occupied by the well fed wasp, and flung the wasp from his body, then slept the next two days while the wasp spent the night dashing in and out of the fire I had made trying to warm itself.

When he awoke Apollo told me the trip had been worth it.  He would have flown twice around the world to let his Mom know she would be all right.  They have a connection that not time, distance, or the inability to touch will ever break.  And there is nothing on either side of the river that will keep him from letting his Mom know she will be alright.

We all have that bond with our Mom but it is the special ones like Apollo who never let it fade.