The Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. 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.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. 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...

Author Unknown



For many of you who are animal lovers, this passage will likely be a familiar one. The Rainbow Bridge has become a famous and favorite reference among the huge internet community, most especially, it seems, among cat lovers. It is a beautiful vision of hope and joy and peace for the furry children who have given us their love and companionship for their entire lives.

Some people will look to the Bible and claim that there is no evidence that animals have souls and so the animals don't go to heaven like humans do. And perhaps that is so - perhaps there is no BIBLICAL evidence that animals have souls or can go to heaven. But to each person who says that, I would suggest two things. First, take a kitten or a puppy into your home, raise them, care for them, love them. Make them a part of your family. And second, when that cat or dog precedes you and your family into the life thereafter, look your young children straight in the eye and tell them where their favorite friend has gone.

The answer? The Rainbow Bridge.

I have had the blessing of being able to share the lives of my kitties with a community of cat-lovers and gotten a chance to love their kitties in return. We share the happy and the sad in the lives of our furries, and that will always include those unavoidable moments when we have to say goodbye. One of those goodbyes occurred last night, in a house where the beautiful Lola (kitty) had been the inseparable companion of the little Mr. B (for baby) for the first 2 years of Mr. B's life. In her goodbye post, Mr. B and Lola's mother had this to say:

"I told Sean that I think [Lola] will come to say hello to us when we get to the Rainbow Bridge, but I think she'll let us go on, preferring to lay in the sunshine and chase butterflies for many, many, many years to come (God willing) until the big grown up man that Mr B becomes finally meets her there."

The very image of that quote yanks at my heart. It's the spirit of the Rainbow Bridge. Lola will wait as long as she needs to wait, until Mr. B is ready to come home. He probably won't remember her, not in life. But when they meet at the Rainbow Bridge, he'll know her, as if they lived decades together, rather than just two years. And then they will cross the rainbow bridge together...