Goodbye my faithful friend

On Thursday December 17th 2009, Jared and I said our final farewell to our beloved and faithful dog Sandee. It was a sad day but we are so very blessed to have had her in our lived for so many years.

She came to live with us in September 1996, just one year and one month after we got married. We had just moved in to our trailer in Santaquin and knew that we needed a companion. She was a a little fluff ball. Full of life and as most pups are, very naughty. She dug up our brand new couch only weeks after we got it. We had to have it reupholstered. Sandee was our little girl. She went every where with us and ate with us. If we had waffles for breakfast so did she, if we went to the burger place she got burgers. She loved to have her belly rubbed and would always roll over when I got home from work. We have added and subtracted a few other pets over the years and Sandee loved (or tolerated) all of them. A few years ago we were told she had congestive heart failure but didn't worry too much about it because she still was so active. In the fall of 2007 she started coughing really bad and it got worse, by February of 2008 she was pretty bad so Jared took her to the vet and she was put on medication. She continued to have her ups an downs but seemed pretty active. By Thanksgiving of this year she was so bad that I was sure she wouldn't make to Christmas. She started to just sit there and you had to really coax her to get her to go outside. One particularly bad day I was laying down by her and I told her that she had been a good dog and a great friend and that I knew her time was short. I let her know that I was grateful to have her in my life and if she needed to go I understood. On Thursday I got her to go out before I left for work and she came in and sat by the heater. I told her a good bye and walked out the door. That night when I got home she had passed. I truly was blessed to have her for the 13 years she was with us and could not have asked for a better companion. Some may say she was only a dog but to me she was so much more. She was always there for me at the end of a very bad day and even a good day. I was reminded by a friend of mine about the poem The Rainbow Bridge, and I know that she is there with all of my faithful friends who have gone on before me. I am adding to the blog as well to remind us all that there is a place where our beloved friends go. When their time is done.

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE POEM
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...