BELGIAN SHEPHERD LINKS - GRIEVING LINKS |
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The Rainbow BridgeThere is a bridge connecting heaven and earth.It is called the Rainbow Bridge because it has many colors. Just this side of the Rainbow Bridge there is a land of meadows, hills, and valleys with lush green grass. When a dog dies, he or she goes to this special place. There is always food and water and warm spring weather. The old and frail animals are young again. Those who are maimed are made whole again. They play all day with each other. There is only one thing missing. They are not with their special person who loved them on earth. So each day they run and play until the day comes when one suddenly stops playing and looks up! The nose twitches! The ears are up! The eyes are staring! And this one suddenly runs from the group! You have been seen! and when you and your special friend meet, you take him or her into your arms and embrace. Your face is kissed again and again and again, and you look once more into the eyes of your trusting dog. Then, together, you cross the Rainbow Bridge, Never again to be separated. |
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A Living Loveby Martin Scot KosinsIf you ever love an animal, there are three days in your life you will always remember... The first is a day, blessed with happiness, when you bring home your young new friend. You may have spent weeks deciding on a breed. You may have asked numerous opinions of many vets, or done long research in finding a breeder. Or perhaps in a fleeting moment, you may have just chosen that silly looking mutt in a shelter - simply because something in its eyes reached your heart. But when you bring that chosen pet home, and watch it explore, and claim its special place in your hall or front room - and when you feel it brush against you for the first time - it instills a felling of pure love you will carry with you through the many years to come. The second day will occur eight or nine or ten years later. It will be a day like any other. Routine and unexceptional. But, for a surprising instant, you will look at you longtime friend and see age where you once saw youth. You will see slow deliberate steps where you once saw energy. And you will see sleep when you once saw activity. So you will begin to adjust your friend's diet - and you may add a pill or two to her food. And you may feel a growing uneasy feeling on and off until the third day finally arrives. On this day - if your friend and whatever higher being you believe in have not decided for you, then you will be faced with making a decision of your own - on the behalf of your lifelong friend, and with the guidance of your own deepest Spirit. But whichever way your friend eventually leaves you - you will feel as alone as a single star in the dark night. If you are wise, you will let the tears flow as freely and as often as they must. And if you are typical, you will find that not many in your circle of family or friends will be able to understand your grief, or comfort you. But if you are true to the love of the pet you cherished through the many joy- filled years, you may find that a soul - a bit smaller in size than your own - seems to walk with you, at times, during the lonely days to come. And at moments when you least expect anything out of the ordinary to happen, you may feel something brush against you leg -- very, very lightly. And looking down at the place where your dear, perhaps dearest, friend used to lie - you will remember those three significant days. The memory will most likely to be painful, and leave an ache in your heart. As time passes the ache will come and go as if it has a life of its own. You will both reject it and embrace it, and it may confuse you. If you reject it, it will depress you. If you embrace it, it will deepen you. Either way, it will still be an ache. But there will be, I assure you, a fourth day when - along with the memory of your pet - and piercing through the heaviness in your heart - there will come a realization that belongs only to you. It will be as unique and strong as our relationship with each animal we have loved and lost. This realization takes the form of a Living Love - like the heavenly scent of a rose that remains after the petals have wilted, this Love will remain and grow - and be there for us to remember. It is a love we have earned. It is the legacy our pets leave us when they go. And it is a gift we may keep with us as long as we live. It is a Love which is ours alone. And until we ourselves leave, perhaps to join our Beloved Pets - it is a Love we will always possess. |
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The Power of the DogRudyard Kipling
There is sorrow enough in the natural way
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Prayer
for the Animals
by Albert Schweitzer |
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Hear our
humble prayer, O God, for our friends, the animals.
Especially for animals who are suffering; For any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or Hungry; for all that must be put to death. We entreat for them all Thy mercy and pity, And for those who deal with them, we ask a Heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words. Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals, And so to share the blessings of the merciful. |