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The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 5:09:24 PM

angelikaJ

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The Rainbow Bridge

I have been thinking about beginning this thread for a couple of years actually.

In honor of Henry the cat...
...and all our other beloved furred and non-furred animal companions.

Here is a place for us to gather and laugh or cry, share our tales about our tailed and tail-less, our furred, feathered, scaled and shelled
and otherwise non-Homo-Sapiens friends.

Welcome!

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 8:03:38 PM

sexyred1

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Oh jeez...you just made me very sad. My beloved cat Belle died 2 years ago unexpectedly and I am still not over it. I set her up on Rainbow Bridge and I cannot even look at it now; it makes me cry!

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 8:05:36 PM

angelikaJ

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I'm sorry I made you cry.

Could you perhaps tell us about your Belle?

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 8:15:37 PM

sexyred1

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No I am not crying, but I am shocked over how sad I still am about it. I never had a pet growing up. As we became adults everyone in my family had cats.

I was never interested in getting one until one day I was in a park and this woman was carrying around a basket with 10 tiny white and grey kittens. She had too much of a litter and wanted people to take them.

I looked inside and one tiny kitten looked up at me with big green eyes and it was all over.

I called my then husband and said, get a litter box and food I am bringing a kitten home. He said are you kidding?

He was mad until I got home and put her down on the floor. She shook her little butt, looked up at him, meowed, and he was a goner.

She was a very beautiful American Shorthair, mostly white with grey on top, emerald colored eyes and a loving disposition. When I got divorced, I kept her.

She was perfect. Very healthy. Two years ago, she turned 18. One night she started chasing her tail and started limping. I rushed her to the vet and he said have her stay overnight.

The next morning she was dead of a brain aneuryism. I was so shocked I literally did not hear him tell me that.

I was basically inconsolable for weeks. On the way back from the vet to get her ashes, I ran into a stranger, a woman who asked me what happened. I burst into tears and told her.

She told me she was an artist and offered to create a painting of Belle with just a photo I had.

3 Weeks later this stranger, who I had never seen before, delivered to me the most beautiful oil painting of Belle that looked like she was breathing.

I now have it hung in my home and it is amazing.

Everyone wants me to replace her but I cannot seem to do that as yet. But it was a blessing to have her in my life for 18 years.

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 8:25:59 PM

sexyred1

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 8:29:24 PM

lizi

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Thank you Angelika...hugs.
We had a cat named Isabeau - my husband named her after the woman in the movie Ladyhawke; he always thought Isabeau was a beautiful name. She lived with my family and I for 17 years and she was our heart. From the time my sons were born and opened their eyes, she was there. They were in high school when she died of cancer, the middle son kept saying he was going to take her to college with him, I'm kind of glad she didn't make it quite that far. On the day she died we were all bereft but the two middle boys especially since they had never lived a day in their lives that she was not there.

She went through horrible things at my boys' hands and still loved them and curled up on their laps. She was the first thing my sons looked for when they got home from school or whenever they'd been away from the house. Her name went through various permutations as they struggled to learn to talk and she was one of the first words they learned...whatever variation they could manage. When she got sick at the end I carried her around to stay next to me where she seemed most comfortable. One night she tried mightily to stand and she pushed her head into my chest for one last ear scratching- I knew she was saying goodbye. We all still talk about her fondly and miss the heck out of her, I think we miss the most how she used to howl if she found herself alone in a room. She'd start crying and we'd call out to her so she'd know which room we were in and then she'd trot frantically in to find one of us and be content again. She used to sleep curled up next to my back. I miss feeling the weight of her there. She was a damn fine cat.

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 8:34:54 PM

soul2share

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Red, you aren't replacing her, you're just filling the hole she left behind. When you're ready, your next little furbaby will walk right into your life just like Belle did. I can't imagine my life without a pet.....I grew up in a menagerie, dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, a rabbit, fish......and I took care of all the lab animals at school, so there were mice and rats, plus an occasional snake. My KB is getting older, and I hope he just passes quietly in his sleep, I've had to put down 2 cats and a dog, and it totally destroyed me.

Our cat we had growing up as kids got hit by a car.....when my dad buried her, it was only the second time in his life I'd ever seen him cry...the other two were when his parents died. All of our furbabies have been adopted/rescued, and we consider them our kids. We spoil them rotten, I've mentioned several times that I actually bought a king sized bed so I'd have enough room for them PLUS me!

I didn't click on the Rainbow Bridge, because everytime I read it, I bawl my eyes out. There are quite a few furbabies waiting for me there, and I can't wait to see them again!

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 8:47:30 PM

soul2share

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I remember when I had my son, we had two kittehs at the time, Mickey and Alex. My ex's mom was of the belief that cats will suck the breath out of a baby, no really, she was, bless her heart!.....she told him that he should get rid of the cat....and Mickey seemed to think the crib was all hers. But when I brought my son home from the hospital, Mickey was fascinated by him. She would sleep in his crib, and right before he'd wake up to eat, she'd come and get us. When he'd be on the floor, she'd always be someplace close by. It was like she was his own little guardian angel.

And I almost got arrested because of Mickey and Alex....it was springtime in Austin, TX, so I opened all the windows and the patio door, and of course, they got all goofy when they smelled the fresh air....they were running around and knocked over my mop bucket, and I hollered "Knock it off or I'll beat both of you children!". About 10 minutes later, there was a knock on my door, and there were two police officers there. Apparently, someone heard me threaten them, and thought I was killing my kids......as they came down the hall, both of the idjits raced by and almost tripped the one cop...."Those are my children" I told him......they thought it was rather amusing, as did I. They looked around to make sure I didn't have any human kids locked up someplace, and left to tell the caller that everything was fine.

I lost Alex to feline leukemia two years later....try explaining that to Mickey and Vincent....neither one understood why Alex wasn't there anymore. And why I was bawling like a baby. I was heartsick, and Mickey did her best to make me feel better. Even my ex's one granma that hated cats was won over by Alex. Everytime she'd come over, Alex would go sit next to her, each time closer and closer until one day, lo and behold, she was in Granma's lap!

< Message edited by soul2share -- 10/21/2010 8:48:36 PM >

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 10:16:35 PM

windchymes

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It's going to be a grand reunion at the bridge. I can't wait to get there! :)

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 11:10:28 PM

MistressRosalyn

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I have had some wonderful furbabies over the years. My first was Mama Grey, I chose her when I was 8...she had just been born while I was at school, and when I peeked under the bed to see the babies, she came right over to me and chose me. I had her for 16 years.

Then we briefly had Fang, the Ferocious Ferengi cat. Long story over the name, and even longer story about him breeding with a purebred Himi and a Himi Mix to produce Rajah, Yazmine, Kat Mandu, and Meer Kat. Two days before we went to bring the new babies home, Fang was hit by a car. So instead of only one baby, we ended up with 4 of them!

Kat Mandu disappeared late one night, I think an owl or coyote got her. Meer Kat was taken by some vindictive neighbors out to the middle of the desert and dumped. Two months later, she showed up! We had her for another 8 months, and one week before she was hit by a car, a stray tabby polydactyl showed up, and we rescued her and called her our porch kitty...aka Miss Porsche.

We lost Rajah to old age almost exactly 5 years ago, and I had to put Yaz down almost 3 years ago. Damned near broke my heart each time. Even worse, I had to put Thor, our black lab, down one month after I put Yazmine down. That was very rough.

We still have Miss Porsche...and she is about to cross the bridge in the next couple of days, if not on her own, then I will have to help her. She has had a stroke, has lost one eye, can barely eat, but still gets around OK. It's so hard when they are OK on one level, and yet so not OK on other levels.

She is my daughter's cat, yet she cannot bear to put her down, or to have me do it, but I believe that at some point, while my daughter is at work, that Miss Porsche and I will go for that final ride. I feel as though I am betraying my daughter's trust, but when Miss P looks at me, and follows me everywhere, even to the point of sleeping on my bed for the first time in 12 years, I feel as though she is asking me for that final mercy.

I hope I can have the strength, and the compassion to do what needs to be done for Porsche's sake. Bast, if you are merciful, please take her to yourself without my intervention.

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 11:16:36 PM

GreedyTop

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Gracious..

damn, still too fresh..

*cries*

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 11:19:10 PM

MistressRosalyn

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Miss Porsche

Attachment (1)

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When did my life become a Jerry Springer/Jeremy Kyle episode?

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 11:19:56 PM

GreedyTop

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aww! she's gorgeous!

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/21/2010 11:24:48 PM

MistressRosalyn

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Princess Yazmine

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_____________________________

Member of Lance's Fag Hags.

I have 20 Fluffy Points and you don't!

I went to the Dark Side...now where are the cookies?

When did my life become a Jerry Springer/Jeremy Kyle episode?

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/22/2010 2:04:09 AM

twistedwillow

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When we hand back the ashes of the pets we cremate to their owners, we also give them a copy of the The rainbow bridge.
It's a beautiful poem, and after 2 years I still tear up when I read it.

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/22/2010 7:50:27 AM

sexyred1

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Here is Belle

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/22/2010 7:51:53 AM

sexyred1

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I messed up last night trying to post Belle's pic...hope this works

Attachment (1)

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/22/2010 10:18:44 AM

soul2share

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What a beautiful baby, Red!

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/22/2010 10:50:06 AM

LadyRian

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They're beautiful!
Thanks for posting the pics, Mistress R and Red. :)

I miss my Oskar. He was a stray who adopted me. I took him to the vet right away to have him checked out, and discovered that he was afflicted with Feline Leukemia. He went into remission for 7 years, but eventually it kicked back in, and he crossed over in 2003. He was such a sweet guy.

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RE: The Rainbow Bridge (thread) - 10/22/2010 12:07:39 PM

peacefulplace

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Thank you, Angelika, and thank you from Henry. It's quite an honor to have a thread started in your memory.

Thank you for posting pictures of your kitties, Red and MistressR. They were beautiful to see.

I remember when I brought Henry home from my parents' house as a kitten. He never made a crying sound the entire 9 hour drive; just purred loudly whenever I'd put my hand in the carrier to pet him. Henry never met another cat or human he didn't like.

Every night he slept at the foot of my bed, as if he were a dog instead of a cat (plus, the queen of the house, Lorraine, has that spot next to my head as her own). Every morning when I woke up, he'd open his eyes and stick up his head expectantly, almost smiling, waiting for his morning love, then giving more love than he got. This made me so. happy. Every. single. day.

At Henry's first Christmas, I had my usual dinner party and gift exchange for my friends. Henry became the star of the party. Little groups would form around him as people played with him and his toys all night long. One person at the party is a serious amateur photographer--Henry was immortalized in almost 50 pictures that night. No one else was in more than 5 or 6 pictures.

One time Henry witnessed a blizzard outside his window. He seemed quite interested so I allowed him to go outside to experience the snow. He'd put one paw down, lift and shake; another paw down, lift and shake; and finally looked at me as if to say, "Are you playing a joke on me?" I would swear that cat had human thoughts he could communicate through eye contact and facial expressions if I didn't know better.

Finally, Henry is the only cat I've ever had who actually allowed me to dress him up for Halloween. He favored a Santa outfit, in particular, and did not like witch costumes because of the hats.

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