Tales From Rainbow Bridge: Tien

 

After 21 years, Tien had given everything she had, and it was time to cross over.

Some people say when a pet parent and animal, like Momma Gretchen and Tien, had more than two decades together, it softened the blow of one of them passing, but as a Rainbow Bridge representative, I can tell you it makes it more challenging. After 20 years, the two souls forgot how to live without the other one, and the first day a parent faces without their long-time companion, the most straightforward task becomes brutal as the heart adjusts to exiting without its other half.

Tien mourned the loss of her Mom, but that pain was one of the many aches, discomforts, and sorrow that was taken from her when she crossed the Bridge, and all that pain went to her Mom, transporting her to waking the long, dark road called Grief. She has been here before, and if she heeds her angels, she will emerge from it a stronger person. Terrible pain does that if it doesn’t break you, and I am betting my kibble on Momma Gretchen.

As Tein crossed, she noticed a kitten, who had crossed weeks after birth, trembling, not knowing where she was or what happened to her; Tien had hundreds of dogs and cats she had touched in her life, and his brother Bisket waiting for her. She could have easily left the kitten alone, possibly sentencing her to an eternity of wandering between the worlds, but Tein had a heart of gold, and she stopped to talk to the cat.

“Are you lost?” Tien asked.

“I don’t know. I was with my Mom, then I felt sick, and I woke up here,” the kitten named Thomas said.

Tien asked how old the kitty was and was told 21 days. She told Thomas she was 21 years old. “I wish I had 21 years,” Thomas said.

“We are all born with so many heartbeats,” Tien explained. “I was blessed with many of them, together we have the normal amount.”

“I wish you could give them back,” Thomas said.

Tien said she did, too, and then was told by Thomas he was born feral and never knew a home.

Tien took Thomas by the paw and said she would have a home now, with her, forever; all she had to do was cross the Bridge with her.

And so they did, at 21 years old and 21 days old, but now it didn’t matter because they were both immortal.

Biscuit was happy to meet his new kitty brother, and together they left for the mansion where they would live to await their family.

And Thomas was happy. It took him a lifetime to find a forever home.

Luckily, that was just 21 days.