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."
(Permission is given by the author to share this essay,
but please keep her name as the author and my e-mail address attached to
it.
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Annual International Compassionate Living Festival
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