Sydney didn’t make it.  She was due to be discharged this morning but an unexpected cascade of events occurred last night that was unstoppable.

She never made it home but after she was given rest, we got back to Valerie’s house and found Hudson on the pile of comforters and pillows
meant for her as though he was awaiting Sydney’s return.  And Valerie asked me if I believed Sydney’s spirit did make it back.    
Do I believe in that, she asked me.
As a man of both science and faith, I’ve borne witness to many inexplicable, unresolvable things on my travels. Long ago, I wrote a poem whose opening lines were;
“Cast before a silver sheet,
Tracing lines that never meet.”
Reflecting now back on those words I once wrote, I think what I meant was that a life, a love, a mile, a moment in time can be captured photographically but never truly and wholly represented.  
I believe that there is a spiritual connection between loved ones that does and maybe should defy our scientific understanding.  Energy is an expansive thing that is neither created nor destroyed.  And  though the lines never add up and never meet – that connection may change, it is never lost.  
Ricky Gervais must be laughing his ass off.  

As a humorist, friend to animals, and self proclaimed atheist, I’ve poked and prodded and kidney punched him here a few times about the apparent dichotomy: how can one love animals and not see God?  

Well, the second of the 2 dogs that walked cross country just got diagnosed with cancer like the first.  As a man of faith it must be fitting in some cruel Biblical irony.  

But I don’t and won’t believe it is.  My mission was God given.  After all, a stripper from San Antonio started it all.  

*Disclaimer – not all animal loving atheists post Sharpie outlined moob Selfies on Twitter.  Not Safe for Work.  Not Safe Ever.  Sorry.