Before I located him at the Denver Afghan Rescue, Baltho came to me psychically. He wouldn't let me get the notion that I had to adopt an Afghan out of my head. I had no intention of getting another Afghan. I wanted a popular breed, like a Labrador or Golden Retriever, not another independent and willful Afghan. But when he saw me, raced my way, jumped up, wrapped his legs around me, and nipped my ears and nose and cried, he was mine. And I was his. Just like the dog who owned a boy in my favorite childhood Little Golden Book,
Mister Dog.
Baltho quickly showed me that he was not only willful and independent but the wisest dog I've ever had, often pointing out things that I missed in my counseling. I paid attention because he was always right.
Our five years together were intense, presaged by paranormal insights, just as his coming to me in the beginning foreshadowed his physical arrival.
Because of a prophetic dream that I first misread, thinking he'd be healed of his increasing health crises, I began to expect him to return to me physically again.
In the second book I will detail how I located him again four years later--this time as a female Afghan with the same energy and nearly the same size and coloring. Immediately she and I were as bonded as Baltho and I had been.
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One of my life's quests is to show people that animals are here to teach us compassion and unconditional love. The story of this dog, Balthazar, demonstrates this beautifully. The author weaves a captivating story of the dog that had an innate healing ability as well as being a great teacher. I'm a big fan of this book and convinced it will be loved by anyone who ever looked into the eyes of a dog and saw its soul.
--Jenny Smedley, best-selling author of Pets Have Souls Too, Pets Are Forever: Amazing True Stories of Angelic Animals, My Angel Diaries, Past Life Angels, and other books www.jennysmedley.com
One reason human beings and animal companions forge close bonds is they sense their time together is limited. In Baltho, The Dog Who Owned a Man, Thomas Watson doesn't present a story of that bond--he accompanies us on a sojourn of joy, wonder, courage, discovery, compassion, love, healing, frustration, sorrow, and, ultimately, the hope of reuniting some day. Curl up with your pet, along with some tissues, and enjoy a good read.
--Dianne Arcangel, author of Afterlife Encounters and Life After Loss
Slipping and sliding happily on the fine clothes of a fashionable man, the dog Balthazar, or Baltho, takes the stiffness out of Darren who would present himself always in a full suit of clothes. Head weighing on her lap, Baltho finds Carmen's inner child, as he reveals his own "inner puppy." These are clients of the therapist who owns Baltho, and such fee payers benefit while the therapist wonders.
Thomas Ramey Watson puts up such a cloud of appealing detail for the life of the psychotherapist and his extraordinary Afghan hound that the willing suspension of disbelief is automatic--oh, tell us more about this charming psychic dog, whose first act of esoteric sharing is so strong that the narrative speaker feels his own nose bit by the squirrel that Baltho has chased. The dog has superimposed his own dog vision of the hunt into the consciousness of his owner. But it all hangs together, even for the supervisor of the therapist, Gold, who in some of the funniest scenes I have read in a long time, actually takes the dog to a posh restaurant wearing a "Dog in Training" saddle and orders fancy courses for Baltho, while diners look on.
For those who believe in dogs' powers of the psyche and those who do not, this is a fine book about the inner quest of a dog lover who knows how to narrate the most exotic psychic aspects of the connections between man and beast.
--Alan Naslund, author of Silk Weather
One of Thomas Ramey Watson’s prominent forebears on his mother's side was Jacques LaRamee. A number of places in the upper Rocky Mountain West bear his name to this day. Laramie, Wyoming is best known. Jacques was a renowned and influential explorer and fur-trapper. Because he was just, honest, and treated others, including the often-despised native Americans, well, he was held in high esteem. One winter, the story goes, the native Americans were starving, so they killed one of Ramee's cattle. He told his workers not to take action against them—they were hungry. Jacques shared with fellow free-trappers his theory that the world was wide and there was room enough for all. He had the courage to live his convictions and followed the beat of his own heart, not what was imposed on him from outside. One of Ramee’s progeny, psychotherapist, life coach, writer, and professor, Thomas Ramey Watson believes that journeying in various realms—of the mind, the physical world, and the soul—is central to enjoying a good life. The insights gleaned from becoming aware of the intersecting planes of existence lead us to fuller and more deeply lived lives. Thomas Ramey Watson, Ph.D., is an affiliate faculty member of Regis University’s College of Professional Studies in Denver, Colorado. He has served as the Episcopal chaplain (lay) for the Auraria Campus in Denver and taught English for the University of Colorado at Denver. He has trained as a psychotherapist and was named a Research Fellow at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, a position he did not take, choosing to do postdoctoral work at Cambridge University instead. He is the author of many scholarly writings, including an acclaimed book on Milton, Perversions, Originals, and Redemptions in Paradise Lost, and a two new books of poetry, The Necessity of Symbols and Love Threads. Dr. Watson is available for speaking engagements, teaching assignments, counseling, and coaching. He can be reached at trw@thomasrameywatson.com. You are invited to join him on Baltho's Facebook page, Baltho, The Dog Who Owned a Man. If you would like signed copies of Baltho and other memorabilia go to http://www.thomasrameywatson.com/editing. You can pay using PayPal and credit cards. Read about Baltho's 3 lives: allvoices.com/contributed-news/15262375-trust-the-mystery-baltho-the-dog-with-three-lives My Shirley MacLaine's IE interview: http://www.shirleymaclaine.com/encounter/forumdisplay.php?f=278
