Rainbow Bridge

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.” - Milan Kundera

I am not the kind of person who could get touched by stories easily, but I don't know why it's that difficult to hold my tears whenever I think about the story of rainbow bridge. More peculiar is that, it's related to heaven, a place I have zero faith in.

When a pet dies, it goes to this meadow outside of heaven. It has all illnesses cured, and there're plenty of other pets to play around with, missing only one thing: its owner who's still on earth.

When the pet's owner dies, the owner crosses the meadow upon his/her journey to heaven. It sees him/her from afar. It couldn't help but leave its friends there and run towards its owner. After all these years, the pet and its owner finally reunite. They cross the rainbow bridge together and enter heaven. They will never be parted again.

I don't know if Debbie will be waiting for me there, or for his original owner whom he stayed with for almost nine years. I don't think I can make it to heaven anyway, if there's one. But I found it pretty difficult for me to carry on writing this entry already, when I have to talk about this sad, but touching, story.

Pretty much everybody who knows me knows that The Unbearable Lightness of Being is my personal bible. I cry every time I read to the scene when Karenin, the dog of Tomas and Tereza, is dying.

I really don't understand why I am so touched by the death of pets. I have never even experienced one.

Maybe because pets are so innocent and truthful. There's a saying that, for owners, their pets might only be a part of their lives. But for pets, they have no other lives than their owners. We're all of our pets ever had.

Or maybe I unconsciously accepted and trust an after life. The long wait for us to reunite is too painful for me.

Or maybe, because pets never speak. You may rest assured that they love you; yes, they love you unconditionally. Behavioural psychologists can never share this thought, because they always like to say that, it's all conditioned.

And the fact that our pets' minds are a mystery to us is itself so enchanting.

Whenever I imagine that Debbie will see me from afar in the meadow and run towards me happily, I break down and cry.