Bailey Arrives at the Bridge and Brings Snow

 

To better understand how humans are suffering, we emulate their conditions at the Bridge. While the idea of having Black Russian Terriers attack their peaceful neighbors was thankfully rejected, putting the Bridge in a deep freeze did help us understand the cold had unintended consequences, namely that we had.

To properly tell this story, I must first introduce you to Mama Rachel and Papa Robert's first and sweetest foster failure Bailey who came into their home for what was intended to be a few weeks and the charming girl made last a lifetime.

When Bailey took sick, she hid her symptoms from her failing foster family. She knew she owed them for her life, so a little pain and suffering in silence was a small way to repay them, And she didn't want them to worry.

But dogs can only hide the pain for so long, and eventually, Bailey lost control of her lower body, something even the bravest and slyest of us can hide. Her terrified parents to her to the vet she was diagnosed with spinal neurological cancer. One day she was a normal dog; the next, she was gone.

Not every dog enjoys passing over in the cold, but Bailey is such a good-natured sport. She jumped on Enzo's elevator and rose to the top, where we waited. Standing next to me as I swore her in were her brother Benjamin and sister Bella. Once the oath was administered, the threesome romped in the snow like puppies seeing it for the first time.

Then the most miraculous thing happened. When a pup passes over, and people cry because they are mourning, those teardrops collect together in clouds and float to Rainbow Bridge, where they fall, and we collect them. But because of the cold air, we had a delightful blizzard.

Each flake had the name of the parent who had shed a tear to create them. While most of them were for Bailey when a pup becomes an angel, it reminds other parents of their baby crossing over, and they shed a few.

We gathered our parent's snowflakes and were happily surprised to find they held our parent's scent. I used mine to build a snowman that looked like my mom, and it was oddly comforting to see it in the yard smiling at me.


And that was how my friend Bailey came to Rainbow Bridge and brought with him snow to remind us of the comforts of home on a snowy day when everything inside is warm, and you can snuggle with your parents until the storm passes.

All storms pass, but what they take with them that is scary.

But rest easy knowing whatever is lost will soon be safe and pain-free on this side of the Bridge.  

Like my friend Bailey.