Afterlife: The Journey of a Dog's Spirit

By Maryann Tobin

This heartwarming story is told through the eyes of an animal spirit that has been sent back to earth in the body of a small dog. His mission is to help a young woman discover the hidden powers of the Animal Spirit World. If you’ve ever shared your life with a dog or any other animal, you will never look at them the same way again after reading this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maryann Tobin
• Release date: Sep 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9780692529188

Maryann Tobin

Maryann Tobin is a lifelong animal rights activist and consumer advocate. Her articles have appeared in the Tampa Tribune's Hernando Today, as well as on numerous websites. She has also written extensively about environmental issues and politics and was the winner of the 2012 Allvoices American Pundit Award for her reporting on the 2012 elections. In 2011, she appeared on The History Channel in Brad Meltzer's "Decoded" series.

Book preview

Afterlife

The Journey of a Dog’s Spirit

Maryann Tobin

Copyright © 2015 by Maryann Tobin.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced without permission. Review quotes or short passages may be used for marketing purposes and reprinted in newspapers.

ISBN-10: 069259187

ISBN-13: 978-0-0692-52918-8

Cover photo by Maryann Tobin

This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my dog Verdell

December 27, 1999 – January 7, 2015

Chapter One

The Assignment

A shadowy haze crept over what was normally a perpetually sunny and seemingly endless pasture, where animal spirits napped and played as if time never existed. In fact, for these non-human souls, it didn’t. Their days of being bound by the inevitable ravages of time in physical bodies didn’t apply here. But it wasn’t a permanent state and the rapidly approaching haze reminded all of them of that. It was a sign; The Council of Spirit Leaders was about to convene and hand out embodiment assignments. Most of the time, that was a good thing and I particularly looked forward to it. However, this time, at least for me, it would be very different. Not just for my own spirit, but also for the human heart I was destined to irrevocably change forever.

The head of the Spirit Leaders took the form of a white Bulldog. I think it was because he wanted an excuse to splatter everyone with drool every time he spoke or shook his head. Or maybe he just liked short, stubby breeds. Of course he was a fine specimen for the non-sporting group, with remarkably symmetrical brown spots around his feisty, charcoal eyes. He also had a large mahogany patch on his back that resembled an English horse riding saddle, complete with additional matching colored spots where the stirrups would go. He went by the name of Bruno for the casual nature of it. But make no mistake; there was nothing casual about what he did, or the power over our fate that he held. There were two other members of the Council, a Portuguese water dog named Bob, and an apricot toy Poodle who went by the name of Hillary. She was a real bitch in every sense of the word. Bob, not so much.

Bruno sat at the top of a small, grassy hill under a massive White Oak, with Bob and Hillary dutifully posing at his flank. I think they accompanied him mostly for show, although there was probably more to their purpose on a clandestine level. He began his declaration with the usual, I know all of you are eager to put your spirit’s to better use than just hanging around here throwing balls at each other and trying to see if you can get the cows to fly with the pigs. But that’s not what we’re really about here, and think we can all agree on that. Right?

There was a collective nod of agreement from the crowd, which consisted mostly of animals inhabiting dog, cat, bird, and horse forms. During downtime, species choice was optional, but names were not. Only the Spirit Leaders had permanent names in this place, the rest of us just went by whatever name and species we had in our last embodiment until we entered a living animal again. So at the moment, I was simply, Cookie dog, which I thought was infinitely better than Fluffy Horse.

Bruno went on in a booming voice, trying to sound very scary and authoritative. Today we will be handing out just one assignment. I know that is unusual but get over it. We need a very special Old Soul for this one.

Bob and Hillary giggled, and then quickly snapped to attention with perfectly stacked show dog poses.

Bruno then pointed to me and said, Cookie dog, you will be returning as a small Maltese to teach a human that loyalty and love have more power than money. Your assignment starts at exactly 11:04 AM on December 27, 1999, Living Earth Time, in the state of Missouri, USA. That is all I can tell you right now. He then turned like a mechanical toy with his head stuck up in the air and trotted away with Hillary and Bob in tow.

I was terrified. Not by the assignment, but by the way he said it. We usually get a lot more details and the lack of them made me think that there were a lot of wildcards in this one and even Bruno wasn’t sure how it would turn out. Either way, I knew this embodiment was more important than most.

Suddenly, my past embodiments flashed through my thoughts. I was a good dog. I was also a good cat on more than one occasion. And there was nothing like soaring over the canopy of a forest, scanning the earth below through the piercing eyes of a hawk. All totaled, my spirit had inhabited more than a dozen different species in just over one hundred years. That milestone was a big one for me because it qualified me to take on the official designation of Old Soul. It also might be why I was the only one given an assignment this time. I had just made the mark after my last embodiment as a Persian cat, which ended after nearly fourteen years of perfect love.

There were both small and large benefits to being an Old Soul, mostly on the level of communication. Since passing the 100-year mark, I had acquired the ability to reach a Deep Eye Contact State with a human. With that, I could put an idea into their head and even communicate my feelings on a deeper level than younger souls. It may not sound like much, but reaching DECS,