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| 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... |
Marlee
Marlee was with us for 13 years. I captured her in a squirrel trap when she was a little feral
kitten. She was a very sweet cat and could hold her own around the younger cats when they tried to tease her.
She had strange spells all her life where she would hide and stop eating. I would then force-feed her droppers
full of tuna juice to get her appetite back. This last illness wasn't very noticeable, Marlee still played and jumped
around until her last 3 days. Then she started building fluid up under her skin and seemed in much pain. The vet
said she had a mass on her liver or spleen. I brought her home for those last three days with pain medication and
I was coaxing her to try and eat something. Finally, after the weekend, we had to make the tough decision to take
her back to the vet to be euthanized. January 7th, 2008 was a warm and sunny day, in the 50's. Marlee spent her
last hour on the grass, in the sunshine, sniffing the breeze and hearing the birds sing.
Marlee was a good kitty.
Yellow Cross-eyed Kitty
Yellow Cross-Eyed Kitty was someone's pet
years ago when Shawna first saw him. When he showed up again spring of 2005, he was dirty, starving and sick.
Why would anyone abandon a mostly blind cat???
Yellow Kitty became part of the outside cat family. He and Mike did not get
along very well, but then it seemed to become mutual wariness. Mike had been chasing him away but he finally started
standing up for himself. Shawna bought Yellow some amoxicillin for his sneezing, and interceptor for any worms
he may have had. He straightened out some, but not fully. By Feb. 2006, Yellow loved Shawna and she was able to pet him but she couldn't get him into a carrier to go to the
vet. She treated him with a few more courses of Amoxicillin and he made it through the summer relatively okay.
By fall, he was sick again and disappearing for longer and longer stretches. Finally, he just didn't come back.
He disappeared shortly after Amber. Shawna thinks he may have finally succumbed to his illness.
Amber Lynn
Amber Lynn was born in the spring of 1991 and died September of 2006. She was the oldest member
of the cats in our family, moving in with Shawna before Dan was in the picture. She was a very intelligent
cat and a great climber. She used to break into the house by climbing a tree, then the roof and window sill on the second
floor, and then push aside the accordian side on the window air conditioner and going in through to the spare bedroom!
She learned her climbing techniques from playing with a squirrel tail when she was little. Shawna and Dan would put
it up high in different places and she would always figure out a way to get it.
She had two kittens before she was spayed and was a good mother. She attacked a stray German
Shepherd for coming too close to our house and also a visiting Pomeranian. Both her kittens passed before her.
DJ (Double Jointed) lived a year but passed from a congenital problem. Torrie (the tornado) was given away and
we found out she was hit by a car in the new owner's driveway.
Amber was a good cat.
Grey Tiger
April 2005 Grey Tiger Kitty has died. The neighbor came over and asked
if I recognized a kitty in his side yard so I went to look. Grey T.K. crossed the Rainbow Bridge due to an infected
bite on his leg. Dan and I buried him in the back yard. I sure wish he hadn't gone feral, I could have helped
him.
White Toe
1993 to June 2004
Here is Ol' White Toe. He was a stray that had been
around for 11 years. He disappeared for weeks at a time and came back all beat up and sickly. Shawna dragged him
kicking and screaming to the vet for penicillin more than once. He did not want to be a pet and enjoyed tom catting around.
The last time Shawna saw him was Memorial Day weekend of 2004.
He had an infected bite on one of his ears. The vet's office was closed for the holiday and she couldn't take him in.
She gave him lots of good food, extra vitamins, cleaned the bite with peroxide, and told him to come back around so he
could go to the doctor. He never came back. Two days later, Shawna "felt" him pass.
He was a good cat and fathered many kittens in the neighborhood. Mike and
Marlee are probably his children. There is a black kitten with white toes in the feral colony behind our neighborhood.
He is most definitely a junior.
The Wonderful Grey Kitty
approx. 1985 - May 2003
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