Tails From Rainbow Bridge: Visiting My Home with Pintus

Sometimes the afterlife really does seem like an eternity.  I have so few souls here I had met during my mortal life:  My Dad’s parents (thankfully Nana has grown to like dogs in the  afterlife and no longer complains when I growl and show my teeth); his Uncle Bob and Aunt Bev, who I met the day after my Gotcha night; our neighbor Mrs. McAloon who was always happy to see me; and my sibling dogs Blake, Copper, Jax and Skye.

I know that may seem like a lot, but they all have their own lives and adventures. Somedays I do get lonely.  I was feeling quite melancholy, looking over the river, when my friend Pintus came over and asked me why I was glum.  I told him about my loneliness.

“Let’s go visit your last home as angels,” he said.  “I would really like to see it.”

He was being kind.  He knew that sometimes an angel needs to fly home.  He took me by the paw, and we flew off.

It was nighttime.  There are no streetlights in our neighborhood.  There is nary a pole.  Just solar lights on poles at the end of the driveways that casts a soft glow across the lawn.  The gardens were asleep.  I told Pintus how I loved visiting there in the summer as a butterfly, smelling every flower, delicately landing on each petal.  But now it was cold, dark and raw.

I told Pintus about when we lived in the condo across from the state mental institution, and my parents were committed to walking Blake and me when they got home from work.  There was six inches of snow on the ground as we hiked around the abandoned softball field at the institution.  My parents sludged through while Blake and I walked on top of the frozen accumulation until I hit a soft spot and disappeared.  My parents frantically dug me out.  I shook off the snow and continued.

Pintus had a good chuckle about that.

We passed through a wall into the front room.  We stopped by the bed where the grandbabies used to sleep.  I loved when they came over.  Now they are too old to sleep at Grammy’s.  There are so few benefits to getting older.

I also showed Pintus my famous Leopard Skin Vagina Kitty Condo.  It is the home to the stuffed animals who manage my museum.  Pintus and I entered, and I showed him the artifacts of my life.

We passed into the hallway and over River’s pee pads which are so unprofessional.  We went into the kitchen.   I showed Pintus the cabinet where the kibble is stored.  We both took a deep, heavenly breath.  Then we went to the treat jar in the corner.  I opened it, and we shared a bacon treat.  He then studied the many drawings of Pocket and me on the walls drawn by our friends Connie Gross and Eileen Kohler.

We flew into the living room.  Pintus stopped at my table top, looking at my pictures, my gifts, my books, and the box that I don’t like:  The box that holds my remains.  It freaks me out.

Then we flew into the bedroom where my parents, Pocket, and River were sleeping.  My mom looked as beautiful as she did the day I departed.  River and Pocket were sleeping between them, leaning against them, sharing body heat during the cold night.  This is what I loved most of all.  There is nothing more comforting than sleeping in a pack.  Pintus asked if we could snuggle with them, and I said yes.

We both flew down with my parents and cuddled with my sisters.  River and Pocket saw us.  They gave Pintus kisses then I gave River’s allergic paw, which my parents were worried about, a kiss, and Pocket’s everything, because Pocket always gives my parents reason to worry, a kiss, and we settled down.  It was heavenly.  The warm smell of a pack huddled together, the sweet sound of humans deeply breathing, the hum of the ceiling fan.  I was home and sharing it with Pintus, one of my very best friends.

The visit was brief.  My mom stirred, her bladder full again, and when she did Pintus and I were required to leave.  We were soon back the the Bridge.  I kissed my good friend and thanks him for suggesting the trip.

I went to sleep.  When I awoke, I couldn’t remember if it was a dream or not.  Then I saw Pintus walking around with one of the stuffed animals from my Leopard Skin Vagina  Kitty Condo, and I knew it was very real.

Thanks for the great night Pintus.  Sometimes an angel just needs to return home.

Pups of the week: Ruger and Pintus

Ruger

The handsome German Shepherd regally ascended on the escalator towards the spot at the edge of the cliff where I would give him the oath.  When he reached me he gave me a kiss on the head.  I began reading the oath.  Then I heard the sound of eight paws pounding the ground, quickly headed towards me.  I spoke faster, then even faster.  I had to get done before the big bodies attached to those paws arrived.

I got done and slipped away as the three German Shepherds collided with a roar that shook the mountains.  They wrapped their legs around one another and danced in a circle.  The clouds of sad tears caused by our newest member’s passing mixed with the Shepherds’ tears of joy.  Then the three boys turned, finally reunited, and ignoring everyone else, charged into the hills to run.

Ruger had joined his brothers Daddy and Taser at Rainbow Bridge.  The Shepherd brothers were together again.  As they disappeared up the hills, we could still hear their paws, and their hearts, pounding.  Their joy even touched my cynical little Yorkie heart.

But with joy comes great sorrow.  I could hear the sobbing on the mortal side.  While we were lucky to witness the boys reunited their parents could only use their imaginations to see them.  It will be a very long time before the boys and their parents are reunited.  In that time their parents will share love with a herd more of German Shepherds.

It was stage four kidney failure that brought Ruger to us.  His parents took excellent care of him before and after his diagnosis.  They gave him the loving home he had each day of his life, only more so.  But their beautiful boy only had so many heartbeats, and they finally expired.

How we wish their parents could see their three boys frolicking again.  They came running down the hill and then rolled on the ground nipping at one another.  A game of chase began again.  Daddy and Taser used their wings to fly leaving their brother on the cliff.  Ladybug flew over and attached Ruger’s wings, specially made by Scooby to match his brothers.  Ladybug was going to teach him, but Ruger did not have the patience.  He flapped, flapped, flapped his wings and then he took off to the skies and now the three brothers played in the sky, zipping past one another.  They put on a terrific show.  We gave them a long round of applause when they landed.

But they didn’t hear us.  The three of them were curled in a perfect ball around each other, sleeping.  Reunited at last.

By morning they would work out a schedule, so one of them was always with their parents, and around their little human’s sisters side.  And when their parents were sleeping, or the boys knew they were safe, they would charge into the hills, and then the skies to play.

Flying German Shepherd brothers are quite the sight to see.

Pintus

While we, and his family, had lots of time to adjust to Ruger’s arrival, Pintus came with little warning.  He had a seizure, and a short time later he passed to the immortal side, in his Mom’s arms, on his bed.

His sister Rain had arrived a short while before.  No mother should lose two children so close together.  Instead of the thundering paws of Daddy and Taser, Rain slowly trotted up to us. She knew how unprepared her mom was for Pintus' passing.  Before I gave Pintus the oath, I let Rain go to him.  They stood on their back legs and hugged for a long time.

Pintus and Rain had always gone together like peas and carrots.  It was hard to think of them separate,  It did all the Angels’ hearts well to see them reunited but we stayed silent respecting their shared sorrow.

Rain took Pintus by the paw and led him to me.  I grabbed his paw too, and I gave him the oath.  He repeated my words.  He seemed as stunned to be with us as his mom was that he was gone.  Rain saw how upset he was and she stayed near him through his wing fitting and his reuniting with the hundreds of dog friends he had here at the Bridge, and the other animals his mom had owned who he had never met.

I could tell that Pintus was anxious to learn how to ghost and dream visit so he could see his mom again but he has always been the sweetest boy.  He knew his friends loved him, and he spent time with each one, making every dog feel like they were his best friend.

When the long line of friends ended Rain announced that she would like to teach her brother how to fly.  Pintus learned very quickly.  Then, before we knew it, they flew together to visit with their mom.  Rain had done this multiple time before, but now she flew with a partner.

Like the German Shepherd brothers, Pintus and Rain have been inseparable.  They don’t play as hard as the boys (I don’t think I have ever seen Angels play that hard) but they do spend a lot of time together sharing memories, laughing, and talking about their favorite subject, their mom.

They have shown me that the River of Life, and the unbridgeable gap of being mortal and immortal cannot extinguish love.  It lives on in the afterlife and is lit a new when parties are reunited.

Every angel is filled with love.  It is majestic when we get to see the love shared with a family member.