On August 28, 2024, Pepito, my loving long-haired Chihuahua (also known as a ChiWowWow), enjoyed the last online class in the 7-week Become An Animal Whisperer series I taught with The Shift Network. He could feel the hundreds of people attending the live course and even the hundreds who would learn from the video recordings.

He connected with all the students deeply in a communication exercise previously and loved them all. That morning, he was so excited for me to get ready and begin settling in the office in front of my computer to teach. Then he relaxed on his bed and meditatively focused his energy to support me and everyone attending.

The next day, on an early morning walk that Pepito eagerly conducted, tragedy struck in the form of a large Grandfather Rattlesnake. After this oceanic change, it is too raw to release the painful details. Reading what I have written about the experience revives the wrenching sorrow that others who read may also feel. It feels right to cradle Pepito’s last hours on Earth in a quiet, sacred space.

Pepito and I had shared so much joy, healing, and expansion of heart and soul in the six years we shared. We recently reached another realm of pure tenderness and understanding together that I will always cherish. Everyone fell in love with Pepito for his adorable, spritely appearance and the sweetness and loving wisdom he radiated.



Rita Cristman, who helped facilitate his rescue in 2018 from a harsh life on the streets living with a homeless person, sent me this powerful poem when she found out about Pepito’s sudden demise.

Grief how dare you sneak up on me.
How dare you trick me again and not
Give me any warning that you were on your way to my door.
You’re always lurking behind corners.
you love the element of surprise.
it’s like you want to penetrate my skin, my lungs, my belly and my heart.
You want to
Drain the energy out of every step I take.
you suck my motivation and my clarity out of me like a vacuum.
it’s like I’m up against a wall.

The wind is so powerful it just pushes me down again and again.
Each time a memory comes
Flooding my mind of
What I’ve lost, grief knocks me to the ground
And I cannot catch my breath or stand up.
Sometimes when I cry out it’s like someone opened
The door a crack so I can get a breath of fresh air so I can keep going.

Grief I’m not going to let you stop me from feeling love in the depths of my soul.
I just have to know you’re lurking in the shadows and somehow
I have to let you teach me
How to walk the path sometimes in the darkness because
the love I feel is so bright it fills me to the brim,
it over flows.
I let the sadness flow over me
Like lava from a volcano.
I Reclaim myself slowly and gently.
I’ve been here before I know the road
but each time there’s a different twist and turn I didn’t expect.

© Rita Cristman



On September 2, I wrote,
Last night, I was floating in layers of reality, immersed in seeing and feeling the dreamlike nature of realities and how we create them with thoughts, emotions, and perceptions. After Pepito (in spirit) and I mourned the passage of our life together, the experience of his passing shifted. By the end of that day, I could not dwell on memories of him in form. I was lifted into a new space. It became clear that I needed to live in the new space of reality opening and just appreciate all the goodness here and what was coming.

Sometimes, the old sweeps away like a flash flood, an oceanic change. The waves keep moving and perceptions changing. All must be allowed to move, to pass, to be renewed, and to move with it. The memories are for appreciation of all that has been shared and all that has transported us to our next level of being, a constant evolution. All transforms into greater levels of love. I thank you, dear souls of my heart, dear Pepito and all, who have traveled the road with me and taken care of me as I have taken care of you.

I am so grateful for the spiritual riches, comfort, beauty, joy, and grace, of my cats Ziggy, Lila, and Jerry, 11 bantam chickens, and Ma, desert tortoise. There is so much to be grateful for amidst healing the wounds of loss.

Floating in the current of ever-shifting realities
Deep waters surround
My boat is light and strong.

Pepito 2011-2024





Note: The guardian kingsnake mentioned in the previous blog was guarding the territory around my house, which was far away from the encounter with Grandfather Rattlesnake.