Do you really believe in The Rainbow Bridge?

Yes I really do believe in The Rainbow Bridge!  Thanks to Callie who explained it to me when Shadow passed at such a young age.   I am a firm believer in Faith and Prayer even tho I dont attend a church.  I prayed so hard that Shadow would be released from pain.... it gives me comfort to know that he is playing and having fun with all the others that went before him and those like Mickey that followed

 Shadow,

Do you still have the link (or the post) that Callie explained to you about the Rainbow Bridge?

Thanks.

Thank you for sharing that.

When Rusty went to the Bridge, I had a vision of him romping through a meadow chasing those little white rainbows....or maybe not chasing them so much as being with them.  Months later when we got Thor and Sheba I saw those same butterflies in my yard.  We had NEVER seen those little guys before anywhere in that area.  I know in my heart that Rusty sent them to tell me he was glad that I could move on and open my heart again.

 Yes, without a doubt. I know Jake (our foster who we had to put down on Thursday) is there now having a great time and waiting for me. I also know that he'll be the first to greet Rosco, Lexi and Luna when their days come. My husband and I were talking about it in the car after the appointment, wondering if all the breeds hang out together (e.g. all the labs are retrieving tennis balls out of a river while all the border collies make the rounds keeping the headcount, who is where, etc.)

 I absolutely believe that our dogs go to a place where we eventually meet them again.  I don't know if it really looks like the description of the Rainbow Bridge or not, but I am convinced that there is a different realm and that this place is not the end of any of our journeys...

http://www.rainbowsbridge.com/hello.htm

I keep it in my favorites it gives me peace when I am thinking about and missing my sweet Shadow.

I firmly believe I will someday be with my beloved pets who have passed. I don't know if there's a rainbow bridge for sure, but I know I'll be with them in a wonderful place where there is no illness, pain or aging.  I recall waking up in the middle of the night when my 15 yr. old poodle passed and seeing a very bright light, almost like a star with a solidness to it & I knew she was saying, "mom, I'm ok" It was only there for an instant but it woke me up.

 No, I don't believe in an after life. However, I think that the idea of the Rainbow bridge is a great coping tool and something that gives us comfort. I absolutely love the rainbow bridge welcoming committee that we have here on this site. I browse through it now and again and you can just feel how loved each dog was. It helps to know that you and your dog/animals are not alone in your grief. That, in itself, is very comforting.

I absolutely, completely 100% believe in Rainbow Bridge.  Now the actual physical placement of everything I'll leave up to the Alpha of all alphas and His staff -- but to me it just plain makes sense.  I have a feeling my explanation to Shadowsgin was probably in an email. 

I'll try to explain it the way *I* see it if I can. 

This isn't denominational at all -- this is essentially how *I* was given peace after a whole LOT of anguish.

If He knows our hearts and knows what will ultimately make each one of us happy, then there are a LOT of us who will see reunion with our best fur friends as possibly the focal point of those we want to see.  Some of us don't even HAVE much family to mourn for. 

But the whole point to the Hereafter is a place of happiness and ultimate fulfillment and contentment.  And for *my* heart that will include animals.  Because the Alpha of all alphas would NOT have given me the heart I have here on Earth only to somehow change me then?  No. 

I'm not going to bother with chapter and verse -- those exist if you want to look for them and interpret them that way.  But the character of God is such that He's got it all covered. 

And for me ... I'm just glad we're talking "eternity" here because frankly NO ONE is going to hurry me thru that meadow.  I have a LOT of friends waiting there for me.  Friends I'm going to have perfect communion with.  Friends I've wanted to understand better for a long, long time ... friends I've never even met face to face. 

When I think that Glenda's Rusty and my Muffin the Intrepid have had years to spend together ... you think I don't want to talk about that?  I DO!!!!  Because I've grown to love Rusty and I didn't even know Glenda while he was alive. 

I know when Muffin passed over ... I am SO positive that he left *voluntarily*.  Just the look of contentment on that dog's face when we found him that morning -- knowing how terribly terribly sick he'd been (Glenda and I both lost Rusty and Muffin to renal failure).  But he was just plain asleep with no pain on his face at all.  And very very shortly thereafter I was completely comforted with the idea that one of Muffin's cancer kids had to walk over the Bridge and an angel came to Muffin that morning and said 'Hey buddy -- one of your kids has to come across the Bridge this morning ... would you like to be her escort so she doesn't have to make the trip alone?  YOU are her favorite therapy dog, and the Alpha of all alphas says we'd be honored to have you now because you've been a good and faithful servant."

Then there was Foxy when HE went over.  He hadn't walked in a week -- he was so weak.  I talked to him all the way up to Dr. Baileys (and this was nothing new -- he had heard about Rainbow Bridge for years).  And I asked him "Fox ... do me a favor?  I know you want to see Muffin and Polly ... but pretty please -- make sure you see Prissy right away for me and tell her how MUCH I miss her even today?  So many years without her and I still miss her?"

And Dr. Bailey still had the catheter in his leg from the last time he'd been up there and he gave him a bit of valium just because I didn't want him to suffer at all.  He'd been asleep about 5 minutes when Dr. Bailey came in.  I continued to hold him as Dr. B slipped the pink stuff into the catheter.

And almost at exactly the second when the pink stuff hit his vein, his feet began to move.  Not slowly -- not just muscle spasmy response.  But he was RUNNING.  All 4 feet flying.  His heart was stopping as Dr. Bailey listened with a stethescope but all 4 feet were flying as he laid there.

No vocalization, no pain, no trauma.   Then suddenly after the heart stopped the feet stopped.  And the vet looked at me with tears in his eyes and he said to me:

"Mrs. Kennedy I've never EVER seen anything like that.  That wasn't just post-mortem or para-mortem death muscle spasming.  HE was running.   And he wasn't just running ... he was running TO something.  Did you see his chest heave?  He was excited.  He was racing TO something.  I'll tell you Mrs. Kennedy ... if I weren't already a person inclined to believe in a hereafter I would have to stop and evaluate it because of what I just saw.  He couldn't wait could he?"

So is the Bridge painted?  I don't know.  I don't care.  I know that Meadow is there, and the likely place for is is just outside the Pearly Gates.  But how it looks to each is something I'm going to let Him resolve.  It's that omniscience thing -- It's HIS job. 

I'm not being sacreligious -- I just truly have enough faith that He can handle all of it.  ... "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for ... the evidence of things not seen."

Like Jewliee, I do not believe in an afterlife either. However, to me, nobody really dies as long as they are remembered and that their life and its impact are recognized and celebrated. Therefore, I will keep my cherished ones alive forever in my heart and memory.

 Callie,

Thank you so much for the touching post. Your story about Foxy was something I will always remember in my heart. You make absolutely sense and I know that one day we all will be united with our furbabies. No doubts about it.

 I don't know about the Rainbow Bridge, itself, BUT I do believe that dogs don't just cease to exist. My first dog who wasn't a family dog, Grace, died very, very young. I fought it, hard, until the very end. As she passed, I saw her slip out of her body, and I saw where she went. She was happy, finally, and out of pain.

 Jennie,

How did you see  Grace slip out of her body? was it in your dreams ?

I haven't read the replies, just responding to the question as I saw it in the thread title.

Yes, the Rainbow Bridge exists. Let me qualify that I am a scientific person, not given to flights of fancy and find most shows about haunted houses and ghost busters to be a lot of footage reminiscent of "Blair Witch Project."

July 28, 1992 my first wife, Deidre, passed away. In November of that year, she visited me. She had worked through some things and was consoling me before she had to move on to another plane that is forever. My friend, Tommy, was murdered in 1988. He visited at the moment of his death. I knew the hour of his death later form police investigators. We survive our death. And so do our pets. Call me silly but an animal that can dream has a soul.

To me, the Bridge is a real place, just as real as where you are sitting, right now. And one day, you will go there and see your beloved companion, or companions, as the case may be. It is best pictured in the movie "What Things May Come" with Robin Williams.