Amber Da Weenie Arrives at Rainbow Bridge

I love to read my friends' blogs, but sometimes they end with little warning. Writing blogs requires a lot of different things, but the biggest one is time. For every day, a human lives the following day is a sliver shorter. People don't notice it at first, but then they remark how it seems that time has flown by. There is never enough of it. Blog time becomes lost time, so the parent has no choice but to abandon it for more pressing concerns.

Sometimes I lose touch with my blogging friends. Then one day, I will be swearing in angels at the Bridge, and I will see a blogger pup I had not barked with for a long time. When I do, I experience the four stages of Angel grief: 1 - shock. 2 - denial. 3. - acceptance. 4 - butt-sniffing.

I was stunned when I saw Amber from the Florida Da Weennie dogs crossing the Bridge. In recent months she had seldom posted. I had read that she had gone through a medical ordeal but knew nothing else. Apparently, that tail had an unhappy ending.
Amber was at the bottom of the steps, preparing to climb the cliff to Hobo's Landing, where I awaited to swear her in. I hoped I had mistaken her for another Weennie  dog, but when she came closer, I knew it was her. 

I quickly administrated the angel oath then we gave one another the familiar butt sniff greeting. I was about to ask her what calamity had caused her Ascension to the Bridge when we were both bowled over.  

Holly, Amber's sister, who had come to the Bridge two years prior, saw her sister, was overcome with happiness and plowed into us. Then the two Da Weennie  took off running and barking together. I knew it wouldn't last. Newly arriving, Bridge angels go through a process too: 1- Relief 2- Happiness 3-Realization 4-butt sniffing.

When Amber ran off with Holly, she was transitioning from relief to happiness. During their run, Amber realized that she would never enjoy life the way she had before. Her days living with her parents in their house were over. In the middle of her run, Amber stopped. We call it the realization rigor when an angel first understands how much their life has changed.

That is when all Amber's angel friends rallied around her and let her know she was loved and pledged to make her smile, laugh, and enjoy the passing of time until all her loved ones arrived at the Bridge and they could move to Happily Ever After.

We gave Amber a big party, and she spent time with her angel friends, which lifted her spirits. At the end of the day, she told me how her mortal life had ended. She had lost her eyesight and was suffering from kidney failure. At first, she adjusted to the lack of vision, and the meds helped with the kidneys, but it was only temporary. The pain became too much, and she stopped battling the Bridge dementors, who were determined to bring her to the immortal world. Amber signaled her mom that it was time. Her brave mama transferred Amber's pain into her own body, restored her beloved dog's health and set her free

          Amber's momma knows the road of grief all too well. She has had lost many dogs in her life. But, there was something special about Amber. Her mom knows she will be taking a long journey through grief , down some dark paths, because when you love with all your heart, the journey can stretch across the universe. 
Her mom knows that, even though she won't be able to sense them, that Amber, and all the dogs she lost, will be walking with her. 

            Hopefully, this will provide comfort until she comes out the other side into the light.