To Peaches, Fern and Brutus - A Memorial Dedication

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...

Sadness for so many of our precious furballs passing on this week that I thought a memorial was appropriate. Each time that I read of this here or elswhere, a little piece of me dies too. My sadness for all of these felines and their humans!

I borrowed this from Ellie's site CATS & PINK CADILLACS http://members.tripod.com/~Pink73/RA...Eindex-58.html

I hate to admit this, but everytime I heaard a reference made to the Rainbow Bridge, I wondered what that was, but was hesitant to ask for fear of looking stupid.

Thank you MeowMan for posting this thread, although after reading Hiisy, Debby, and Fireshoes posts, and coming through a small "kitty crisis" of my own 2 days ago, it made me cry again, it also cleared this up for me.

The Rainbow Bridge sounds like such a beautiful, happy place for our departed pets to be, it makes the losses more bearable.

Whether it exists or not (I pray it does) it makes me feel better for all who have lost their beloved companions, and makes their loss seem so much less Final.

My thoughts and prayers to all,

Cleo

It has been tough on a few of us, and probably more than a few as some don't post when their loved ones pass. I find comfort in being able to talk about it, and on the computer, the talking is easier because no one can see the tears. Here is a tribute to the three babies that crossed over and all that have gone before.


Your favorite chair is vacant now
No eager purrs to greet me
No softly padded paws to run
Ecstatically to meet me


No coaxing rubs, no plaintive cry
Will say it's time for feeding
I've put away your bowl
And all the things you won't be needing


But I will miss you, little friend
For I could never measure
The happiness you brought to me
The comfort and the pleasure


And since God put you here to share
In earthly joy and sorrow
I'm sure there will be a place for you
In Heaven's bright tomorrow


Author Unknown






Fragile Circle

We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached.

Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way.

We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan.

--Irving Townsend

I'm so sorry to hear about everyone's losses. It's really hard to lose a pet because it's like losing a best friend. Heartless as it may seem, I cried more for cats I've lost than most relatives that have died. I guess it helps that we aren't very close to anyone in our family. When Socks died three years ago, I cried at the strangest (most inapropriate?) times. Like, a week after I was up at like 3 AM watching "The Boy Who Could Fly" and I started bawling. The movie isn't sad, it's a pretty stupid, poorly-made film in my opinion actually, but for some odd reason it made me think of Socks and I couldn't help from crying.

Oh you guys!!! I thought I was doing okay with Peaches's death...but after reading these posts...I realize I am not! I am going to copy both poems...Chucks and MaryAnne's, because they are so beautiful...and save them in my documents...the last one...MaryAnne's...made me so scared for Merlin!
If Peaches death caused me to feel so bad, and so sad inside....what will happen to me if I ever lose Merlin????????????????????????????????

If that ever happens don't expect to hear from me for quite awhile, if ever.

I love ALL my cats....don't get me wrong....but Merlin is the one who was born right after my dad (Merle) died, and I found him in the barn, dehydrated, and half dead....ask my friend, Shannon,(not swalker, but the other Shannon who occasionally posts on here....) she will tell you...

I am terrified that something will happen to Merlin!! It seems like all the cats I am most attached to...something bad happens to.

If something happens to Merlin....I am afraid I will just curl up and die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can't think that way Debby or it will make you crazy. You just live moment to moment and learn to accept what is coming your way. It is never easy (Life) especially because we choose to share our lives with such special critters. Love all of them while they are here, and know that they are on loan to us. We are not their owners, we are their caretakers.

You are right Hissy, thank you for making me understand that I have to cherish Merlin....and not constantly be afraid of how I will feel if I lose him.

They're lives are much shorter than ours and, though brief in comparison, the time that we get to share with our furry loved ones enriches our lives (and theirs) greatly. Be it 2 yrs or 20, we should cherish the time that God has allowed them to be with us. To this day, I still think of and miss my Siamese Delilah, but I know that she will one day be in my arms again and bathing my "fur" for hours til' my arm turns raw and I have to switch her around. My time with Delilah was only a few short years, but I cherish the memories of her that I have. Now, I'm going to have to hug the boys. They'll probably think I'm nuts.

I have had too many cats taken away from me at an early age. Sarah (1 1/2) Benny (4months) Willy (3) and Andy (1 1/2) and this is all in a 2 year span. I cherish every second I have with my animals because you don't know how long they will be here on earth. Everything happens for a reason (even though you sometimes don't know what the reason is) I sometimes drive myself crazy with worry but I have to stop that. It's not in my hands. Just love your babies with all your heart and cherish every day.

Michele

It's sure been a rough week for some of us! These tragedies of loss may be inevitable, but recognizing that fact sure doesn't help much when the time comes. It's love which then asserts itself — and when love comes to the fore all intellectual constructs are made moot.

Let me contribute this excerpt from "The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians," in an ecumenical spirit bridging all beliefs:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

"Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

The Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: Revised Standard Version (Oxford University Press; New York, New York, United States of America; 1965)



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Have I ever mentioned that I respect you as a cool (giving and helpful) cat. Your words stem from a life built upon experience and I welcome that you share your thoughts and readings over the years. Thank you so much.

Mr. Cat.... What you just wrote meant more to me than you will EVER know....because my family was all very relgious, and my father and all my brothers, not only spoke in the tounges of man, but in the tounges of angels...like that scripture you quoted said. For anyone who doesn't understand what I mean, my family, all but me, spoke in tounges when they prayed, as we are taught in my religion, that is right to do. I always have felt like the black sheep, because I smoke, and drink, and noone else in my family does...and although I know I am a Christian, and I love God, and I pray to him... I have never spoke in the tounges of angels, and sometimes I felt like I was not as good as them, or that maybe God didn't value me as much as them, because of my faults, and maybe that is why I didn't speak in tounges....but when I read your post from the bible, and it says, if I speak in the tounges of men and of angles, but have not love...I am nothing....well....it made me realize, that God values me just as much, because I may not have those other gifts...but I have the gift of Love and compassion for others, and that is just as important!!!
Thanks, Joe.

Thank you both for your kind remarks. I'm very happy to have contributed to this beautiful thread.



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