The Rainbow Bridge
inspired by a Norse legend
By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill, is a lush, green meadow where time stands still.
... Where the friends of man and woman do run, when their time on earth is over and done.
For here, between this world and the next, is a place where each beloved creature finds rest.
On this golden land, they wait and they play, till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day.
No more do they suffer, in pain or in sadness, for here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness.
Their limbs are restored, their health renewed, their bodies have healed, with strength imbued.
They romp through the grass, without even a care, until one day they start, and sniff at the air.
All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back, then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack.
For just at that instant, their eyes have met; together again, both person and pet.
So they run to each other, these friends from long past, the time of their parting is over at last.
The sadness they felt while they were apart, has turned into joy once more in each heart.
They embrace with a love that will last forever, and then, side-by-side, they cross over… together.
In Memory of Those We Loved a Lifetime
posted on a local rescue FB wall:
The Fourth Day
by Martin Scot Kosins
If you ever loved an animal, there are three days in your life you will always remember.
The first day 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 ... simply 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 deep fear 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 it 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 sky.
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 human 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 out of the ordinary to happen, you may feel something brush against your leg - very, very lightly. 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 to form of a Living Love -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
