Today I found it is Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day.
My experience with pets crossing the rainbow bridge started in 2014. In the last 12 years I have had my heart broke 10 tens. Yet I keep adding to the funny farm. To honour the ones that I have crossed:
Cinna – a sweet ol’ man that I had far too short. The cat that made me realize I wanted a lap cat. He was always next to me.Hubble – the sassiest pet we owned. He would chase the dogs off their bed!Maggie – our first family pet. She slept with Dharma every night until Maggie had knee surgery and could no longer get up on the bed.Stinker AKA Fat Bastard. He was the alpha of the funny farm. He disliked everyone and everything except Dharma. He would let her dress him up in her dolls clothes.Katey – the chinchilla that lived for 18 years!My sweet lil Mini…. As in Mini Maggie. She was so heartbroken when Maggie passed, she didn’t eat for three days!Murphy. My first boy dog. Ohhhh boy dog energy is very different than girl dog energy. This big goof I got from the local humane society, loved him the minute I saw him. Don was hesitant “look at the size of his paws! Do you know how big he is going to get?” Nope I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. I wanted him. At eight months old I found out that his disabilities would shorten his life. The vet said I would be lucky if he saw three years old. With the help of CBD oil, I got him to four. Sadly cancer got him. He crossed the rainbow bridge with Mini. Venti – the old lady. She came home with me from the humane society because she was 12 years old, black, fat and had four teeth. She was in the humane society because her owner was in palliative care. She was there for two months. I knew she had to come home with me to live out whatever life she had left being treated like a queen. Just over one year I had her for.💕Yeti💕 my soul cat. I swear he was my emotional support animal. I just didn’t know it until he was gone.Macchiato. I wanted a Chow-Chow for 20 years! She was such a lil snob! She didn’t want strangers touching her, but she could touch them. She loved to snuggle with me. Addison Disease cut her life short. She passed just before her third birthday.
♥️ If you are remembering a special fur-baby or babies, please share your story ♥️
I know what you are thinking – “what the fuck is wrong with you?!?!?! OF COURSE YOU HELP!”
Prior to yesterday I would have said the exact same thing, and then this happened……
It was a perfect August morning. The sun is shining, slight breeze, temperature mid 20s C (low 70s F for those of you who don’t do metric), it was windows open kind of weather. I was coming down the stairs and heard Matcha and Moo barking. Aggressively. Excessively. Very clear something was in my yard. I look out the kitchen window and see a canine. At first glance I thought it was a coyote, but quickly realized it was just a lost dog.
I ran to my back door, went outside (with my indoor shoes on) and called out to the dog. It comes right to me. Super friendly, very snuggly. So sweet I had a fleeting thought I could keep her, until I saw she had a collar on, with tags. I have her by the collar and walk towards my house so I can read her tag to call her owners. During this time Matcha is at the breakfast nook window, barking, snarling, asserting that this is HIS house and this bitch better scram. He is at the open window, I realize he is about to come out of the window. I let the stray go, head towards the back door to get some space between Matcha (Moo was behind him being just as protective) and the stray and THE FUCKER STARTS PUSHING THE SCREEN OUT! All while still snapping and snarling.
The bottom corner of the screen pops out, his snout is now outside, the next thing I know the whole screen is coming at me. I grab it, pull it towards me, Matcha now has his head and neck up to his shoulders out the window. Fuck me. He is coming out. I shove the screen in the window, using it to push Matcha back, then I grab the window and start closing it. Matcha gets his face out the window. He is barking, has spit running down his face, snapping his jaw at me. A real Cujo re-enactment.
Out of my peripheral vision I see the stray coming up my right side, heading into the window. All that is between her and Matcha is me. Lil ol’ me is going to prevent a dog fight between a 155 lb German Shepherd x and a 70 lb Boxer look a like. FUCK THAT SHIT!
With my right hand I grab the strays collar and keep her an arms length away from the house while trying to shove Matchas head back in the window and getting the window closed. Both are giving their best alpha dog I’m going to rip you apart barking and snarls.
Success…. Window is mostly closed. I wasn’t able to close it all the way because I would have needed both hands to do it and I was not letting the sweet stray that has turned into a fighting dog go. I walk her over to the side of the property so we can both calm down, I go back to trying to read the tag on her collar. I can’t. I do not have my glasses. I glance back at the house debating going in to get my glasses and see that Matcha popped the window open. Like a lot. FUCK! WHAT IF CHEETO GOT OUT!
I panic. What do I do with the stray? Let her go and not my problem? Hope she doesn’t follow me into the house? I have got to get the damn window closed. I see the man door on the back of the garage, PLEASE LET IT BE UNLOCKED. It is. Fucking Don leaving the door unlocked. Battle for a different day. I put the stray in the garage, run in the house, close the window. Get swarmed by Matcha, Moo and Cheeto. Grab my glasses, go through the garage man door to the house, grab a leash and leash the stray. We go out front, tucked away from windows and I call the number on the tag. It is to our local animal shelter.
The stray is named Socks. She lives two doors down from me! Matcha and Socks are fence friends! They stand at their fences every morning and bark at each other. Like they are having a morning catch up.
I walk Socks home, hand her over to the early teens girl that seemed not bothered that I have her dog. I explained the situation to her and went home.
Chilling in the front driveway with Socks, waiting for the humane society to answer.My battle wound. Better me than a dog fight…. Right?!The aftermath. I am so glad the patio door was closed!No plant was harmed in the making of this adventure.The screen however was not so lucky to go unscathed during this adventure.
I will ask the question again;
If a stray dog wanders into your yard, and you have two large dogs protecting their home against said stray dog, with all the windows open, do you help it?
Yep. Because if it was my dog that was wandering in another persons yard I would hope they would help.
I did learn: That it is important to keep the screen door closed. Breakfast nook windows can only be opened from the top so Matcha or Moo (probably Matcha) doesn’t go through them. Take my glasses with me.
Sadly, as a Gen X slowing down is not an option. We were raised to push through everything and work harder.H asks to go to the red dot store all the time. However she also knows this system 👆🏻works anywhere. Ask for a lil starbies and a walk around Chapters will always result in happiness and new books to read.I have several of these friends. I collect them like trophies.This doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships.Ugh… the struggle
Apparently Jared and I were both cranky…H is very quick to pick up on things like the sound of a large bag of food sliding around the back of my car.I have been trying to get on the damn Hallmark Christmas Cruise for at least 3 years, maybe 4! Sadly I will not travel to the USA even if I have a really good chance to meet Ashley Williams.
Since March I have been back and forth on getting another dog. I had noticed Matcha and Moo have been very low key, melancholy like. When Macchiato was here, they went outside more, played more, had more zest for life. I thought maybe they needed puppy energy in the house to brighten their day. I mauled this over for quite some time and chatted with some peeps.
May 25 I brought home a cute lil Corgi x Miniature Poodle. I named her Mabel.
She is so effing cute!
Within three days her name was changed to Maple because H thought that is what I was saying when I called her Mabel. Dharma said it was a better name for her because she looks like she is covered in maple syrup and the rest of my pets have odd names. Mabel became Maple.
I realized Maple was very attached to me. She went where I went. Walking tight to my ankle, she quickly learned how to move with me so I didn’t kick her. Cried when she couldn’t see me. Always wanting to be touching me.
I felt fear and panic with how much Maple wanted to be with me. It broke me emotionally.
😍
Maple always looked at me like this ⬆️ like she has heart eyes only for me. She just wants to be with me and snuggle.
As soon as I sat Maple on or near me she would fall asleep within minutes.
Out cold asleep, regardless of where we were or time of day. This picture ⬆️ was taken 20 minutes after we got up because I did not have it in me to deal with puppy energy at 4 am.
Her love for me made me feel sad and guilty. I felt like I was dishonouring the memory of Yeti by loving an animal that loved me as much as he did. Every time I would snuggle / hug / love her I instantly felt like a traitor. Left me with a burning ache in my chest. Tears in my eyes. Every. Damn. Time. I knew I was not the right person for her. I knew I could not love her as much as she loved me.
I listed her for sale. I contacted everyone I could think of to see if they knew anyone who wanted a teeny tiny puppy. It was a bust.
Six weeks with her living with me I had accepted that I would have a dog that I could not love the way she deserved. I had achieved what I was hoping for with Matcha and Moo. Puppy energy put a bit of pep in their step. Cheeto too. He had a playmate that was the same size as him that he could play rough with.
Maple & MooMatcha & MapleCheeto & Maple
June 29 a tech (Stef) from my vets office called me. She told me that she hadn’t stopped thinking about Maple from when I brought Maple for a check up on June 2, and if I was still looking for a new home for Maple, she wanted her. Stef told me that her eight month old puppy recently passed away, he was very ill right from the time she got him and that her four year old daughter (we will call her L) wanted a puppy she could play with because L is very high energy and a puppy to snuggle / sleep with. L was very sad that she didn’t have this with her puppy because he was so sick for the short time they had him.
July 1 Stef and L came to meet Maple. L was very quick to play with Maple, an hour later Maple left with them to go to her new home. I asked Stef to send me pictures, a lot of pictures so H will see that Maple is with a good family.
Happy playing in her new backyard!
Stef also told me that she was going to change Maples name back to Mabel because she loved it so much. 💕 This makes me very happy since that was the name I picked for her.
It breaks my heart that I was not able to love this lil ball of fur without feeling immense sadness. I am happy that she landed with a great family that can love her.
I will never forget the lil pup that made me realize that my heart is closed to loving another pet. She taught me that your heart really doesn’t have an infinite amount of love to give, sometimes a soul pet comes along and fills your heart so much, there is only room for the memory of the love you once shared.
I am a very lucky girl to have a very best friend that checks all the boxes 💕 In the 25 years we have been friends, we have never lived in the same city and for 20 of those years, we haven’t lived in the same country!Safety is very important….Or cat Or bird Or lizard Or whatever critter stole your heart and has crossed the rainbow bridgeI got Cheeto 11 days after Yeti passed with high hopes he would fill that giant hole in my heart and love me as much as Yeti did. He did not. Then I read this post, and thought of all times I will be in a room and hear his lil meows getting louder as he walks around looking for me. He comes to me, meows at me and walks away when I try to snuggle him. He loves me in his own way, and checking on me throughout the day is how he shows it…Shout out to all my ladies currently going through perimenopause – it is a-o-k to give no fucks.I have never had just cake for lunch, ice cream✔️, chocolate bar and a Diet Coke ✔️✔️, cupcakes, donuts or candy salad ✔️✔️✔️but never just ordered cake.Closing in on three very long years since Yeti passed, and a day doesn’t go by without him popping into my mind. I read a blurb written by an animal communicator / psychic, doesn’t matter if you believe in this poppy-cock but if you have ever loved and lost a pet the following may resonate with you: They posed the question “How does my beloved pet that has passed make contact with me if not in my dreams?” To which they replied “The first point of contact a beloved pet that has passed makes is, when you think of them.” This brought me great peace. I think of Yeti often, it eased my pain a little thinking that Yeti planted that thought for me.
