Hugs

I couldn’t agree more with this month’s article “Healing Power of Hugs,” on page 25, and I extend this wonderful human connection to how it feels to hug and be hugged by my animal friends.

One memory comes to mind that unequivocally supports the notion that animals do indeed hug. Years ago, I bought a Paint horse named Willie from a family friend. He was a great horse, but I ended up buying another horse (a story for another time), which meant I could not afford to board both of them. Reluctantly, I sold Willie to a man we knew through my dad. 

Time went by, and my mom found herself in need of a new horse. Willie came to mind out of the blue, and we contacted the man on the off chance that he would sell him back to us. As it happened, the man was not riding Willie anymore, and he agreed to the sale. I wasn’t sure if Willie would remember me, as it had been close to a decade since I’d sold him. I had heard updates on how he was doing but didn’t visit because I thought it would be too hard on him—or, more to the point, on me.

When we got to the boarding stable, mom and I wandered around the big pasture looking for him. Suddenly, we saw him, still the beauty we remembered him to be. He saw us too and started walking over as we walked toward him. When he got to me, he wrapped his neck around me and just stood there, pressing his head and neck into me in a huge, long hug. There was no question that he remembered. It was incredible, and my mom just stood there bawling her eyes out! Needless to say, Willie came back to us and stayed with us for the rest of his life.

In hindsight, I’m not sure why I ever thought he wouldn’t remember, but that hug spoke volumes. As the article states, a good, strong hug can mean many things. But taking a lesson from my experience with Willie, I realize that, for me, hugging mostly means deep caring on both parts as “we share the heartbeat of the present moment.”