non-rainbow-bridge-dead-pet solace?

February 5, 2012 8:07 PM

Please help me find the alternative to the Rainbow Bridge poem!

I swear I favorited it. I've favorited other posts and comments about pets and death and can't find it. The comment that it was in (or that linked to it) specifically mentioned it as an alternative to the Rainbow Bridge poem. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

posted by headnsouth to MetaFilter-Related at 8:07 PM (14 comments total)

Was this this quotation?
posted by donnagirl at 8:37 PM on February 5, 2012 [3 favorites]

It was exactly that quotation. Somehow I hadn't favorited it after all. Thank you donnagirl!
posted by headnsouth at 8:50 PM on February 5, 2012

and now we dance
posted by Ardiril at 9:05 PM on February 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

I was wondering why I was getting a bunch of favorites on a four year old comment. When my wife and I worked at an emergency animal hospital on Cape Cod, she was asked by one of the doctors to accompany him to the home of one of our clients to euthanize his sick Rottweiler. Shortly thereafter, the client donated a lovely plaque to the hospital with a photo of his dog on it and that quotation engraved below. I really loved it, and had it printed on some little cards that we could insert into the condolence cards that we regularly sent out. Most of my coworkers preferred the Rainbow Bridge, but it was always a bit too childish and treacly for me, so I would always include the Henry Beston quote when I had the chance.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:09 AM on February 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

Yay, Rock Steady! That's such a great quotation for those occasions. Bravo.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:11 PM on February 6, 2012

Oh man, re-reading that thread has me sobbing
posted by yodelingisfun at 3:39 PM on February 6, 2012

Oh man, re-reading that thread has me sobbing

oh, me too; I haven't had to say goodbye to a dog in quite some time, but with two senior terriers on our hands (one of whom seems to be just about on her last legs), I had to stop reading about a third of the way through, otherwise I could feel I was about to work myself into a frenzy of anticipatory doggy grief.
posted by scody at 3:47 PM on February 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Reba dying was the worst, just so sad but I ended up getting a rescue pug named Jill a month later and another named Moby 6 months later and then someone abandoned a pug puppy named Yuki that we ended up adopting and we have an endless stream of rescue fosters. So all that in Reba's honor, she was a good girl.
posted by yodelingisfun at 3:55 PM on February 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

That's really good to hear, yodelingisfun. Pics?
posted by misozaki at 2:08 AM on February 7, 2012

Is this the thread where we talk about our dead pets? Because I had to put my kitty to sleep a month ago, and I'm still not over it.

I live in a town which has an actual bridge named "the Rainbow Bridge" (a nickname which pre-dates the poem). Every time I drive into town to get my mail I have to cross the Rainbow Bridge. Sometimes I think, "I'm crossing the Rainbow Bridge" and it gives me a shudder.
posted by ErikaB at 5:26 AM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh gosh, I never thought of that. There's a Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo, too.
posted by misozaki at 5:48 AM on February 7, 2012

The reason that I asked about it is because our beloved Susie is about 100 years old and she is the dearest creature on the planet to my son who is struggling tremendously with anxiety and depression and self-doubt and anger and fear as he sits paralyzed on the fence between childhood and adulthood. She chewed the plastic eyes out of every stuffed animal in the house as my boys were growing up, except Radar, my son's most favorite bear. She has peed on every rug in the house except the one in his room. When he's not home she curls up into the piles of clothes on his floor to sleep. It is amazing to witness the power she has ("cuteness power," my boys call it) to soothe him, just by being there and being willing to have the floppy part of her ear lifted and stroked. His anger and stress just dissipate and he buries his face in her neck and says "isn't she cute?" and he smiles and his gorgeous eyes light up for a moment. And she doesn't even *do* anything!

The next few months are critical for him with regard to finishing school (oh please finish school sweetie, you'll be so glad you did), starting work, starting to drive, etc. and she's just got to stay with him until he gets through them and begins to find his own path. But if she doesn't, I cannot imagine trying to foist the Rainbow Bridge on him. Both he and Susie deserve more respect than that.
posted by headnsouth at 6:57 AM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

The pugs....
posted by yodelingisfun at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

My sympathies to all of you who have lost animals you love, or who are looking at that parting in the near future. "Parting is all we know of heaven,/And all we need of Hell" as Emily Dickinson says.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:52 PM on February 7, 2012