The 83-year-old actress opens up about connecting with her beloved dog Terry.
Can dogs communicate after they’re gone? According to Shirley MacLaine, her late dog sure can!
It’s no secret that the 83-year-old actress believes in reincarnation, so it was no surprise when she revealed how she began “hearing” messages from her beloved black and white 17-year-old rat terrier, Terry, after her passing last year.
In her new book, Out on a Leash: How Terry’s Death Gave Me New Life -- which was updated with a new ending -- MacLaine presents a touching memoir of her unique relationship with Terry, ultimately forcing her to face the mysteries of life and death and explore the meaning of love.
“When this animal you desperately love goes, you have to learn they go with their love for you," MacLaine explains in her book.
She goes on to share the heartbreaking story of losing Terry through an accidental drowning, but it would be the pink jacket Terry was wearing that day that would later be a symbolic gesture of communication -- which came in the form of a luscious pink water drop hanging from the railing of MacLaine’s tub, leaving her convinced that “this droplet was Terry’s reminder” to never forget her in her pink jacket.
(Turn on the waterworks!)
MacLaine says Terry made several “reminders” to her thereafter -- even shapeshifting into a rabbit -- but it wasn’t until one evening when she turned on the TV and received one last message from Terry that she truly found peace.
“There was the Women’s March taking place all around the world, peopled by some five million humans, mostly women, decorating themselves with pink and marching for equality, freedom and the right to live in peace," MacLaine shares.
She adds that "peace and freedom are possible despite the inevitability of so-called death."
Out on a Leash: How Terry’s Death Gave Me New Life is out Tuesday.