Life’s Endings Part 4

Bhauji

There is one more story that relates to my deepening understanding of death, and that is of my dog Bhauji. It was very hard for me to leave him behind when my destiny was to move to India. I had carried my wild puppy in my arms and had walked him at three a.m. for an hour on the moonlit country road when he was an older dog, as my work kept us from time together. But while it was hard, it was necessary, just as it was necessary to find the right home. I knew that I would rather have him put to sleep before I would leave him at the pound to possibly be taken by a family who wouldn’t care for him as I had.

On top of a very large poster I wrote, “I can’t take my dog to India” and under that an eight-by-ten photo of Bhauji and me taken at JCPenney, looking our best, with my handwritten history of him below. My veterinarian put it up in a prominent place in her office. Later she told me that a couple had come in, and seeing my poster, the husband had said to his wife that they had to help this woman. So Bhauji moved into a family with no children, a companion dog three times as big, aptly named Klondike, who had recently lost his companion dog, and a farm with as much acreage as my friend Liam’s where we lived. Once leaving him, I knew I could not return for that would confuse him. When I called after a year, on a return from India, I learned that for the first three days, he had lain by the gate not eating or drinking. Then on the third day, he joined the family. For another five years, he and his new friend, and later a second friend when Klondike died, had chased squirrels and been loved as I’d loved him.

This spring I dreamed of the Rainbow Bridge. I saw Bhauji running down a grassy hill toward me, and as he came closer I reached out my hand to touch his nose and muzzle. But a clear, strong barrier stopped my hand. We looked at one another, and I knew. He would be waiting for me on the Rainbow Bridge. I woke up happy.

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… . 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.

“The Rainbow Bridge” Author unknown

My realization is, “If we reach a time when a pet opens our hearts more widely and enters, we learn of a new and different world of friendship and love—of understanding, comfort, joy—with the possibility that we may meet, once more, in a reunion of spirit.”