The Rainbow Bridge and Our Wish for Reunion

Pet Loss and Our Wish for Reunion

"Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge" – how wonderful that sounds. I have often wondered what happens to those who leave us in the middle of the journey. Haven’t you? Where do they go? Are they aware of being remembered? Do they perhaps hover near us ghost-like, unable to penetrate our consciousness of reality? Do they stand waiting for us to realize that they’re just removed from our limited experience of reality? Or do they disintegrate into nothingness and dissolve into atoms and molecules?

The Rainbow Bridge speaks to us because of our common wishes. Loss is a purely personal emotion, and what is intense for one person may be insignificant to another. But anyone who has felt loss with a high degree of pain would have been confounded by questions of what happens afterwards, and whether there will ever be a meeting again. Anyone in grief will tell you that the idea of the Rainbow Bridge is fervently wished for – a bridge that extends between this world and the next, the ticket of entry to the next being death or release from this world.

There was a time when the family pet was a useful animal that would help with farm work. Its position as an object of love was secondary. Not any more. Today, we keep pets solely for companionship and love. "People truly mourn the loss of their pets as they would a family member" Says Dr. Richer, a veterinarian. In the recent years, due to a variety of reasons, the human-animal bond has tightened. As people have become more and more isolated, the affinity with animals and the unquestioning loyalty these companions offer us have become even more precious.

Where illness has been the cause of death, memories are even more painful. Every pet owner who has had the misfortune to put down a pet secretly wishes for some sign from above that he or she has done the right thing. There is a desire to believe that the pet who has left this world has also left his pain and ill-health behind. Automatically, we turn to pictures of a bright life spent frolicking and playing in green meadows and splendid valleys. And always at the end of it – there’s hope of reunion. "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".

When death has taken away its victim, those of us who are left behind often wonder whether the departed are in a better place. All our visions of heaven speak of a place of plenty where there is no pain or sorrow. The Rainbow Bridge also talks about a place where these companions have plenty of food and are healthy and complete; wishful thinking to some, a great source of comfort to others.

It is this attempt to believe in the eternal that inspires us to hang on to memories of the past. We preserve mortal remains in cremation urns and immortalize our dearly departed pets by erecting pet memorials and sanctuaries. These sanctuaries and memorials allow us to reminisce of happy times and find solace in the hope of a happy future.

The Rainbow Bridge leaves the doors of hope wide open. The poem ends on an optimistic note, where the owner finally crosses the bridge himself to be reunited with the animal that has been lost. "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".

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