[PyrNet-L] New Rainbow bridge story

[SOUIXPYRS@aol.com]

Hi Listers,
I wanted to share this lovely story with all of you. I enjoyed the reading of 
it and I am sure you will also. Get the Kleenex ready!
Tammy Hardin




When a pet-owner loses a dog, he/she loses a companion.  When a breeder loses 
a
puppy, he/she not only loses a dog, but the dreams of a breeding program, a
potential show career, and a companion either for him/herself or a buyer 
waiting
for that litter to be born and grow up.  Each precious and fragile life 
deserves
love and tenderness, regardless of how long it is on earth.  The following is
fiction... but who knows what lies ahead at the Rainbow Bridge --?

Rainbow Bridge Return -- by Joy LaCaille

The little dog arrived at the Rainbow Bridge, and a pack of dogs rushed up to
greet him.  He braced himself, expecting a fight, but this was the first pack
that wagged their tails and kissed him instead of attacking him.

It was beautiful here, and everyone was nice to him.  None of them had been 
born
in a puppy mill, like he had, and used for dog-bait fighting and left to die 
in
a shelter because he was a mix-breed battle-scarred cur and wasn't cute.  They
explained why they were waiting for their humans who loved them.

"What is love?" he asked, and God let him go back to earth and find out.

Warm, and dark, he squeezed in with the others and waited for the day to be
born. Scared, he held back as long as he could, but finally got dragged out, 
by
his hind feet.  Hands without fur held him gently and rubbed him dry and 
opened
his mouth and guided him to a warm nipple with milk.  He didn't get a good 
hold
on it, because one of his big fat brothers pushed him aside.  The human hand
moved the other puppy to another nipple and held his body, so he could drink.

"Ahhh, that's better, " he thought, and drank until his jaws got tired and he
curled up to sleep next to his warm hairy mother.  "I remember this," he
mused... "Too bad I'll have to grow up to be hit, left out in the cold and 
rain,
and used for dog-bait fighting, and die as an unclaimed rescue dog. I remember
what it's like, being a dog." he thought sadly.

That night, he crawled up to his mother and tried to nurse, but he kept 
getting
pushed off to the side.  When they were full, the big brothers and sisters got
their bottoms cleaned and he finally latched on to a nipple, but the human 
hands
weren't there to hold him up, and there wasn't any milk in any of the nipples,
anyway.  He was weak and so tiny.  It was even hard to stay upright, and he 
fell
over on his back and couldn't right himself.

So he began to cry, and suddenly the human hands were there, holding him up 
and
putting a rubber thing in his mouth. It didn't taste or feel like mother, but 
it
was warm and made the ache in his tummy go away.

He was having trouble breathing as his lungs weren't fully developed, because 
he
had waited too long to join the others in the womb, as he took one last romp 
at
the Rainbow Bridge.  He could feel the heartbeat of the human, who had laid 
him
on her chest and covered him with a soft cloth, keeping him warm, and soothing
his bony body with gentle circling touches.

He kept thinking of his new friends who had been so nice to him at the bridge
and asked God if he could go back. God said, "Yes, but not just yet. You 
wanted
to experience Love."

So for several hours (seemed like days but it was dark and he couldn't tell 
what
time it was), the human supplemented his feeding and let him experience the
warmth of his mother's body and tongue, and the pile of warm soft littermates.
He got weaker, and the human held him more often, leaving the littermates to
sleep in a pile while he got caressed, kissed, and got to listen to the
heartbeat which was strong and loving.

Finally God came back and asked, "are you ready to come back to the Rainbow
Bridge?"

"Yes, he responded," with a little sorrow, because the human didn't want to 
let
him go, and was crying.

He pushed the air out of his lungs and floated back to the Rainbow Bridge and
looked back at the human, who was still crying and holding the limp body that 
he
had borrowed for his trip.

"Thank you, God," he said.  "Love is beautiful, and I will wait near the 
Bridge
and let the human know, when she arrives, that I loved her, too."

by Joy LaCaille  (You have my permission to share it, but please keep my name 
as the >author and my e-mail address attached to it.  Email: lakai@iag.net)