Monday Question

Did your parents go see the Secret Life of Pets?  Are you afraid they will learn any of your secrets?

Pup of the Week: Odie

Pocket, River Song, and I have been playing with Odie and Scooby on Saturday nights since before Scooby became an angel last year.  We have gone beyond the stars, to the deepest depths of the ocean, and even back to puppyhood.  When Scooby, I, or another angel friend have celebrated a special day our mortal siblings were always invited.  Just a few days ago I plucked Odie from his dreams for my birthday party.

On Friday morning, when I recognized Odie’s familiar scent, and saw him standing by the river, I thought he has overslept at my party and had not returned to his mortal, sleeping form.  I ran towards him to tell him he needed to get home or his mom would be worried about his round the clock nap when I saw the sadness in his eyes.  Odie would no longer be lifted from his mortal dreams for angel adventures.  He was an angel.

I asked him what circumstances brought him to Rainbow Bridge.  He said his mom thought he was acting strangely.  

Now let me tell you about his mom:  We certainly have the greatest collection of moms in our little groups, but no mom is more in tune with her dogs’ health than Odie’s mom. She helped guide Scooby, a Great Dane, to the almost unheard of for a large dog age of 15, and aided Odie to reach the same age.  Both dogs had lost the use of their back legs but their mom and dad built ramps, ordered wheels, and kept their boys active.  There were special diets, pills, and, at the first sign something was amiss, several vet visits.

And it wasn’t just for Odie and Scooby.  All creatures great and small were welcome in Odie’s house.  He shared his home with ferrets, and bunnies, and other furry creatures.  His mom could not say to any being in need of a home.  She even brought injured baby birds into her home.  Some, who were injured beyond being able to survive, she gave forever home to, and others she mothered until they were ready to fly free.

She knew every eye movement, every lick, every move her boys took.  When she asked Odie to kiss her and he refused she knew something was wrong.  She checked his gums.  They were pale.  She, and Odie’s dad, immediately rushed him to the doctor’s office.

An ultrasound showed that something had ruptured inside of him.  He had been living with an aneurysm for some time.  The doctor didn’t know if it was the aneurysm, or something else, but Odie’s time as a mortal dog was ending.  His heartbroken parents said goodbye and Odie was transported to Rainbow Bridge and immortality.

Now he was in front of me, like he was in so many dreams, but now we were all too awake.  I had so much to tell him about life at the Bridge.  I began to speak and I was bowled over by giant paws.

It was Scooby who had done the bowling.  He had run down the hill, his four legs digging into the moist dirt, and couldn’t stop.  He hugged his brother, ran from him and another dog ran me over.  It was Rusty, the dog who preceded Odie.  He ran circles around his newly met brother, barking.  Scooby charged back at him as I moved out of the way.

“Let’s go, let’s run like we did when we were young,” Scooby said.  “We can do it again.  We can finally play.”

Odie looked in the river.  “But I am thinking about Mom and Dad.”

“So am I,” Scooby said still running circles.  “When they think about us how do you want them to think?  Of us forlornly looking into a river thinking about them?  Or us running like the wind, like we used to do, when we were young.”

Odie thought about it a minute, then he smiled, and he took off, running after his brother.  Rusty joined them and the three of them, barked, and nipped at one another, happily playing until the disappeared over the hill.

They were all much bigger than me.  I was barely the size of their paws.  And I could never keep up with them.  But my tail started to wag, my feet dug into the dirt and I took off after them to start an endless dream date.

Tails From Rainbow Bridge: Reflecting on 16 Years

This week I celebrated my 16th birthday.  I was lucky enough to celebrate 12 birthdays with my family.  I passed to Rainbow Bridge just before my 13th.  Since then each party has become bigger, as more of my friends have joined me here.  They have also grown sadder, for the same reason.  

We do party quite hard here.  We partake of every type of food and we can. We even eat cake.  And we drink more than we should.

Our birthdays mark another year separated from our parents.  We feel the same weight of separation our parents feel.  We dance faster and play harder to push that pain of separation away just for a bit.  

We even have silent fireworks, which are much preferable to the loud, annoying, frightening, fireworks that scare many of our mortal friends, causing some to flee their yards and end up in shelters until their family fetches them.  With all the advances in technology, humans have discovered I am stunned that silent fireworks are not among them.

My birthday is two days after a pair of my best friends who are here with me at the Bridge:  Brody, who joined me last year, and Tanner, who preceded me here by several years.  

With all these birthdays our time here at the Bridge has been like college.  We work during the day, and we party at night.  Except we don’t have the innocence that college students have.  We know how hard and cruel the world can be, the compromises our parents have to make to survive, and how the hardness and these compromises can slowly change even the kindest people for the worst.

Which is where we dogs come into the picture:   I know there were many days when I, or now, River and Pocket, have been the best part of our parents’ day.  We don’t have to try hard.  Sometimes we don’t have to try.  We are just ourselves, sitting in a chair playing with a toy, and we make our parents smile.   Sure, there are times we put some effort into bringing our parents happiness, some dancing, or playing, but usually, it is just us being us that does the trick.

We live to make our parents’ hard lives better.  And they make our lives better too.  When you see a picture of an unrescued dog, then see a picture of them in their forever home, they look like a dog who made the long trip from depression to joy.  It is a very quick trip for us.

For us dog, taking our parents from depression to joy can be a daily trip, but one that is our pleasure to take.

River Song's Garden Tour

We recently celebrated the Fourth of July.  Pocket and I have been supervising our parents doing garden work for four months.  Mommy says the gardens are still not ready to be shown online but Pocket and I disagree.  We stole mommy’s camera and took the photos.  Unfortunately we are not very tall so our pictures are all ground level.

This is a picture of the giant bicycle planter.  We don’t know why there are plants riding a bike.  We have stopped asking questions.  We just hope the flowers look pretty.

This is the path that leads to the lighthouse.  We don’t know why the lighthouse needs a path or who lives in the lighthouse.  There are bird feeders and daddy says the path keeps seeds from creating weeds.  We are hoping to catch the elves who live in the house.

This is our front, rock garden.  We like to pee near hear.  We bark at that rabbit everyday but it never moves.  I hate that darn rabbit.

You can see Saint Anthony walking through our main garden.  We don’t bark at him.  He is nice but a little intimidating.

The famous Foley Memorial Garden.   At the bottom right is her memorial stone and the pink roses are from my daddy’s grandfather’s garden.  The rose bush is over 80 years old.  This is the first year it has been in Foley’s garden.

Can you see the little green tomato?  Mommy is very proud of her tomatoes. This is the second year she has grown them.  I hope we can get some when they become ripe.

This is another picture of St Anthony’s Garden from the other side.  

Lucy and Ricky’s Mom Pam sent our mom some seeds on Mother’s Day.  Those seeds have sprouted into the little red flowers you can see in this picture

Our front garden has pink flowers and let’s everyone know whose house this is.

But a closer look shows who this house really belongs to.

Wordless Wednesday

Beat this Caption

Pup of the Week: Jeni

We built a wall to keep any dog who does not want to pass over the River of Life to Rainbow Bridge out.  All we need for this plan to work is that people to do their jobs.  When Jeni was placed in a life threatening situation this week, we angels had to work very hard because humans were refusing to cooperate to keep her on the mortal side.

We dogs were put on Earth to do three things:  To love you, to eat, and, well, most of our parents took away the third thing from us while we were young, so we are down to two things.  Loving you will never hurt us but on rare occasions, we can be hurt eating.

This is what happened to Jeni.  She ate, and then she looked at her Mom and began barking.  At first, her mom thought Jeni was being a brat, but she realized there was something wrong with her beloved girl.  She rushed her to the vet where she was diagnosed with bloat and was in critical condition.

Angel Simon volunteered to sit with Jeni so she would not be alone during surgery.  Angel Bear gathered a group together to fly prayers up to the Big Guy for Jeni.  Everything was in order:  Then I heard angel wings fluttering.  Angel Simon frantically shouted to me that the doctors were refusing to treat Jeni.

As Jeni lay at the clinic, in shock, with her ticket for the Bridge imminent, the doctor told Jeni’s mom, Mama Deborah, he would not treat Jeni unless she paid cash up front.  Poor Mama Deborah was frantic.  She didn’t know if she could get the funds.  

This was a nasty situation.  Mama Deborah was desperate.  She could not lose her baby.  Forcing people to get cash to save someone they passionately love leads to desperation and bad decisions.  Thankfully she was able to find the money before Jeni’s condition had progressed too far.

Mama Deborah paid her money down, and the doctor began the procedure.  Luckily nothing in Jeni’s digestive tract had twisted.  Instead of operating they flushed out her stomach.  She still had to be placed under anesthesia, which is always dangerous.  Despite having to be put under she came through the procedure like a champ.

Jeni had to spend the night at the hospital.  The next morning Mama Deborah went to the vet to get her heart dog and to settle the bill.  The office did not have enough money in the cash drawer to make change for Mama Deborah.  They said they would forward the money to her.  She said the irony was not lost on her.

Jeni is home, and she is recovering nicely.  She took an essential poop this morning meaning she does not have a blockage.  Angel Simon is still watching over her, and Angel Bear is still sending prayers to the Big Guy for her.

Meanwhile, Angel Linky volunteered for an essential job.  He is meeting with the birds, who can fly between the mortal and immortal side of the River of Life, to dive bomb and poop on the bag vet and everyone who works in his office.  They are going to need the extra money Mama Deborah gave them to get their cars detailed.

We hope and pray that Jeni fully recovers, and that no doctor ever refuses to treat a dog until he receives payment.  We angels are doing our job saying prayers and maintaining our wall.  Humans with the gift to heal pups need to help us by doing their jobs.