Just this side of heaven is a place called the Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies, one who has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to the Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends where they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor;those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing: they each miss someone who was very special to them, someone they had to leave behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. The eyes are bright and intent, the eager little body begins to quiver all over!
Suddenly that lucky one breaks away from the group, and flies over the green grass, little legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet,you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again.
Happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands once again caress that beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together. . . .
Author Unknown.....
The first is a day, blessed with happiness, when you bring home your young new friend. You may have spent weeks deciding on a breed. You may have asked numerous opinions of many vets, or done long research in finding a breeder. Or, perhaps in a fleeting moment, you may have just chosen that silly looking mutt in a shelter-- simple because something in its eyes reached your heart. But when you bring that chosen pet home, and watch it explore, and claim its special place in your hall or front room-- and when you feel it brush against you for the first time-- it instills a feeling of pure love you will carry with you through the many years to come.The second day will occur eight or nine or ten years later. It will be a day like any other. Routine and unexceptional. But, for a surprising instant, you will look at your longtime friend and see age where you once saw youth. You will see slow deliberate steps where you once saw energy. And you will see sleep where you once saw activity. So you will begin to adjust your friend's diet--and you may add a pill or two to her food. And you may feel a growing fear deep within yourself, which bodes of a coming emptiness. And you will feel this uneasy feeling, on and off, until the third day finally arrives.
And on this day--if your friend and God have not decided for you, then you will be faced with making a decision of your own--on behalf of your lifelong friend, and with the guidance of your own deepest Spirit. But whichever way your friend eventually leaves you---you will feel as alone as a single star in the dark night.
If you are wise, you will let the tears flow as freely and as often as they must. And if you are typical, you will find that not many in your circle of family or friends will be able to understand your grief, or comfort you.
But if you are true to the love of the pet you cherished through the many joy-filled years, you may find that a soul--a bit smaller in size than your own--- seems to walk with you, at times, during the lonely days to come.
And at moments when you least expect anything our of the ordinary to happen, you may feel something brush against your leg--very very lightly. And looking down at the place where your dear, perhaps dearest, friend used to lay---you will remember those three significant days. The memory will most likely be painful, and leave an ache in your heart--- As time passes the ache will come and go as it has a life of its own. You will both reject it and embrace it, and it may confuse you. If you reject it, it will depress you. If you embrace it, it will deepen you. Either way, it will still be an ache.
But there will be, I assure you, a fourth day when--- along with the memory of your pet---and piercing through the heaviness in your heart---there will come a realization that belongs only to you. It will be as unique and strong as our relationship with each animal we have loved, and lost. This realization takes the form of a Living Love---like the heavenly scent of a rose that remains after the petals have wilted, this Love will remain and grow--and be there for us to remember. It is a love we have earned. It is the legacy our pets leave us when they go. And it is a gift we may keep with us as long as we live. It is a Love which is ours alone. And until we ourselves leave, perhaps to join our Beloved Pets--it is a Love that we will always possess.
-Written by Martin Scot Kosins, Author of "Maya's First Rose" Submitted by Song Pyon
The Silhouette - By Terri Onorato
The silhouette stands boldly at the end of the hallway ears erect, eyes like jewels the tail, it softly sways.
This wouldn't be the first time I've seen her stand nearby her image clear as crystal from the corner of my eye.
Her visits I don't share with some who think I've went over and beyond the grieving time they deem I need, they say I should move on.
I sometimes pity people who have never felt just cause to share the bond between two souls, one with hands and one with paws.
The silhouette reminds me what the others say is wrong for as long as breath goes through me there exists our mighty bond.
When the Keeper calls me home and the Bridge gates open wide our bond will deepen ten fold as we walk through side by side.
You see, I am the lucky one as I've been truly blessed for someday we'll walk together as eternal silhouettes.
Do Dogs Go To Heaven?
The question, it seems to me, suggests more the arrogance of Man than the worthiness of these virtuous animals.
Consider for a moment, these personal observations of the dogs I have known and loved:
Without exception, they savored life for all it could offer. They faced every one of their days with a sense of adventure and joy and good-natured spirit, a spirit tempered only by an overriding eagerness to please and love their masters, for nothing gave them more pleasure.
Not to the smallest degree were they capable of recrimination, sarcasm, pettiness or treachery. They were, however, eminently capable of qualities to which Man can only aspire.
"Unconditional love", for example, is a very modern term Man has coined to describe a paragon of loving...an all-forgiving love, a love without reward, expectation, or promise of reciprocity.
Yet dogs, from time immemorial, have exemplified this ideal of love.
What other friend, I wonder, would have not a flicker of care whether you were successful or an abject failure, whether you were homely or comely, clean or smelly-dirty, foolish or clever, beggar or king?
Who else would judge you--not by your appearance, power, or money--but solely by the kindness of your hand and heart?
Yet who else, I ask, would forgive a blow with a kiss to the offending hand?
Come what may, he loves--no, adores--you, be you sinner or saint. And he will softly lick the sores and wounds the world gives you, and never ask (or worse, tell you) what you did to deserve them.
And if Man is a dog's "God", what man serves God with such a thoroughly cheerful, immediate and unquestioning obedience as a dog serves his master?
Show me a man who so delights in all the great bounties God has given him.
Show me a man as gleefully grateful for his wonderous blessings as a dog is for a scrap of would-be garbage from his master's hand.
Show me a man as trustful, as humbly devoted, as appreciative and joyfully submissive to God, as my brainless, souless dog is to me.
Yes, show me this man, this saint, who so embodies all these abiding virtures.
Then I will show you, my friend, a man with a soul as deserving of Heaven as the most meager of dogs.
Roy Alan Wilson
