The Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.... 
Author unknown...

This is where my two boys have been waiting.  We lost Fidget in July of 2008 and then in July of 2009 we lost Duncan.  Almost two years have past since I last posted on this blog, but every time I came to do just that the picture of my precious boys made me cry and I could not do it.  It is time to pay tribute to them.

Fidget came to us from a young girl on the brink of adulthood who could not take him with her.  We knew him from our agility club and did not hesitate to take him into our lives and make him part of our family.  I started training with him to learn how to work with him on an agility course.  It was not an easy task as he had been working with another handler for his first three years of life.  I even talked to an animal communicator who asked him what the problem was.  His answer was that I was stupid and didn't know how to tell him what I wanted him to do.  After that we really worked on relearning signals and commands.  Things actually clicked and we started winning ribbons at trials.  Our last run together was actually freaky.  I sat with him on my lap waiting for our turn to run a course.  I kept going over and over, in my head, the course as I wanted to run it.  When our turn came I put him on the start line and led out before I released him to start the course.  On my command of OK he took off like a rocket and I didn't have time to even get a command out of my mouth.  He ran that course just as I pictured it in my mind without a fault and in amazing time.  It made me a firm believer in our ability to communicate with our furbabies.  I have rheumatoid arthritis which prevented us from doing agility after that, but it is a memory I will carry with me all the days of my life.

Duncan was the little man who was afraid of everything and everyone unless he chose to make you his friend.  His personality was of a loving little Dark Warrior which is why I named him that.  He totally lived up to his name.  In his almost 6 years with us he never made friends with any of our children or grandchildren, but would go up to a complete stranger and let them pat him.  It was never predicable and always a surprise.   He was a complete wonder to us and we never figured out what was going on in his little head.  I tried to put him in classes when he was a puppy, but he was so afraid of being around others that I just didn't have the heart to make him do it.  We trained at home and he knew basic commands and also that I was the alpha dog (so to speak) in the pack.

Duncan and Fidget had some major fights during the time they shared space in the pack, It started the day I brought Duncan home.  Fidget marked  Duncan on his nose and he carried a white cross the rest of his life.  I think it was a testosterone thing even though they had both been neutered as puppies.  But one could not do a thing unless the other was there.  It took a long time after Fidget left us before Duncan and the girls could go outside without waiting for him to come with them.

I loved them both beyond measure, but Duncan was the light of my life where Fidget was the one I was able to work through the trials of communicating with him and to work as a team.  He was a treasure I will never forget and always remember what a remarkable fur child he was.

I only hope that the when the day comes that I will be good enough to make it to the rainbow bridge and be with my boys again. 

May God Bless You my precious boys,
I Love You. Both