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From the Paw of
Beau Geste,
Golden Retriever
Christmas 2008
Hello there,
Maureen—
 This is your old
friend and "Senior Golden
Retriever," Beau, speaking for
myself, Nicky, Stony, and—even
though they aren't Golden's—Lena,
Snoopy, Fiptz, and Goldie, and—even
though they aren't even dogs,
much less Golden's—Gray
Kitty, Tiger, Simba, TC, Muffin,
Artimeze and of course, Orion.
Betcha didn't expect to be hearing
from us!
We all know that
you—our girl—have had a bit of a
tough time this past year, and that
you miss us; we miss you, too. But
this Christmas we decided to let you
in on "a little secret" and give you
a special gift that can't be bought
in any store: our assurance that you
should not and don't need to feel so
bad or sad. We promise:
everything's going to turn out just
fine.
You see, right
after we had to leave you, we found
ourselves in a place just this
side of Heaven:
Rainbow
Bridge
Although we
didn't know it when we arrived—and
there are thousands and thousands of
us pets here—dogs, cats, horses,
rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, you name
it—we soon found out, one-by-one,
that it's where we pets go after
we've had to leave the people we
loved and who loved us while we were
together "down there" with you.
It's a beautiful, wonderful place,
with green, grassy meadows and
gently rolling hills where we can
run and play, there's plenty of
delicious food and lots of fresh,
cool water, and the sun shines all
the time. There's even one valley
with a great big pond especially for
us "water dogs," and another with
deep, fluffy snow for those of us
who like to play and roll in that
white stuff, too! We're all nice
and warm and comfortable and happy.
We take naps whenever we feel like
it, and we don't have a care in the
world.
We also want you
to know that all of us who had been
sick or old are back in the best of
health, just the way we looked and
felt and remember in our dreams of
the days when we were young and
strong. We're all happy and
content, except for one "small"
thing: We all miss our people
because you were special to us and
we were special to you, and we had
to leave you behind…
Sooner or later,
though—and we've all seen it happen
to the ones who had told us all
about
Rainbow
Bridge
and shown us around—a
day eventually comes when one of us
pets suddenly stops running and
looks off into the distance and
starts sniffing the air and
listening as hard as can be, eyes
bright and intent, eager body
quivering, tail starting to wag (if
the one behaving like this happens
to be a dog, of course—we're the
only ones who wag our tails when
we're happy.) Then, suddenly, that
pet starts to run away from the
group, flying over the lush green
grass, as fast as it can, off into
the distance, toward a very familiar
scent or sight.
The first time
we saw this happen, we wondered
why. It only took one time for us
to figure out just what was going
on.
That pet had
spotted at least one of its people!
It always seems to take a moment or
two for what's happening to sink in,
but then, in the blink of an
eye—faster than two shakes of a
puppy-dog's tail, actually—pet and
person are back together again! Oh
my golly—what a reunion! Loving
arms and eager paws intertwine,
human ears get nuzzled, and sloppy
or prim but in any case very happy
kisses cover both faces. Gentle,
loving hands caress a furry head and
give such welcome scratches under
the chin or behind the ears, and
trusting eyes meet again. We may
have been absent from each other's
lives for a long time, but
we're sure that we never were absent
from the other's heart—not
even for a single second!
And then—after
the two have snuggled enough and
kissed enough, and been scratched
enough, and joyously cried enough,
and smiled enough—then and only
then, the pet takes its familiar
place at its human's side or in its
human's arms, and they cross
Rainbow
Bridge
together.
And just in case
the human had had to leave
one of us behind instead of
the other way around, when that pet
gets to the
Bridge,
it finds its person's
familiar scent (even the cats and
rabbits and gerbils and birds can
pull that off, by the way, if a dog
helps), and follows that scent
across until it finds its human on
the other side.
Either way, we
all end up in Heaven with our
people—together and forever!
So don't feel so
bad…we're all waiting for you, here
at Rainbow
Bridge…
With all our
love,
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