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...
Earlier this week Kahlua joined his sister Fendi at the Rainbow Bridge.
I knew when we were there visiting that he might not make it for another visit. He did go walking with us but you could just tell that the muscle loss in his back legs was beginning to get the best of him. He still wanted to go out and play but he didn't go further then a few steps from us. When we would come inside he would sleep for hours.
When we left Kahlua went to the vet to check out several things a growth on his eye, a strange cough he was having, and a check on his growths that he would get since he was young since I had found several while he was playing with the girls.
The vet determined that the growth on his eye was probably cancer but that since it wasn't bothering him and he was almost 12 years old that he didn't want to put him under for surgery and he was not healthy enough for other treatment options. They found out his cough was from a Heart Murmer and that his heart was enlarged and pressing on his lungs so surgery and treatment were really not options. The vet sent him home and my parents knew that he probably was not going to make it all that much longer. They thought a few more months at the most. So they stopped for his favorite McDonald's on the way home and went for a walk.
Monday my parents woke up and Kahlua' growth had multiplied tenfold in size and he wasn't doing well so they brought him back to the vet and were willing to X-ray his heart and lungs to see if the vet thought he would make it through anesthesia so it could be removed. My parents agreed to as many X-rays as were necessary to determine the condition of his heart and to see if he had cancer in other parts of his body. The vet stopped after two X-rays because the result was obvious when six months ago he was tumor free his body was now completely covered and there was nothing they could do for him. The vet didn't think he would make it a week at that point. They put Kahlua back in the car and went for a drive to some of his favorite places and decided that it wouldn't be fair to make him suffer when there was no way he could ever get better. He was happy and healthy up until the very end so they felt that he was telling them it was time.
Goodbye Sweet Boy. You will be missed but I know Fendi was waiting for you at the Bridge so you could be together again.
Note: Yes he is tied out in these pictures I took them all within a half hour of each other a little over a year and a half ago. There were two big bowls of water right near him and shade under a tree. It was fall so it was not hot and he just wanted to sun himself.
I tied him and his sister up so that I could take some pictures of my dogs outside without Kahlua and / or Fendi stepping on the girls by accident or getting in the pictures.