Our beautiful golden retriever, Chica, was euthanized on September 28, 2007 because she had end-stage renal disease. This beautiful, gentle, loving dog had saved my husband's life twice. The first time, she warned him of his breast cancer by jumping on his chest until he had it checked by his doctor. The second time she woke me up in the middle of the night with a gentle yelp, and I rose to find him collapsed on the floor without a pulse. All three of us had become very bonded together, and I thought of her as our guardian angel. When we were told that she had kidney disease and that it was terminal, I was in denial for a long time. Then, one day, when it was obvious that she was, indeed, dying, I closed my eyes and I saw a beautiful young woman, with long curly tresses the same color as Chica's silky fur. This woman wore a gown made of shimmering hot pink silk, with a bodice all encrusted in gold and jewels. I took it to be Chica's angel reassuring me that she would be in good hands.

After her passing, I was completely devastated. Was it our fault? Did she eat some of the bad pet food (we could not trace what she had eaten when the pet-food scandal broke, as the containers had been disposed of)? Were we in some way negligent? Did our dog-hating neighbors do her harm? Was it just her fate to have bad kidneys? I cried, and wailed, and punched walls, and paced the floors many nights, begging for a sign that she was okay. Then several amazing signs appeared.

First, a friend who didn't know she had passed on, sent us an e-mail with pictures of a brown bear sleeping on the cusp of a bridge near his house. The name of the bridge? Rainbow Bridge. The brown bear had been rescued by volunteers--"angels"--who brought the bear safely to the ground. Chica had two teddy bears and she would bring them to us in her mouth when she wanted to tell us something. We kept one and buried her with the other one. It was a brown bear.

Then, a few days later, another friend who had never met Chica or know anything about her, e-mailed us some pictures of a polar bear playing with husky dogs. One dog had his mouth around the polar bear's neck, the way Chica used to grab her teddies.

And finally, the most amazing sign of all:

I decided to make a quilt representing Chica's angel, as I had seen it in my vision. I made a rough sketch of the angel, and then rested the sketch on the sofa, leaning it against the arm rest. I asked my husband to give me feedback on the sketch because I wanted to add a rainbow to the composition but didn't know how to do it without its looking contrived.

As we looked at the sketch, a colorful rainbow appeared on the paper in the background sky to the left of the angel. It stopped just as it reached the angel's hair, so it looked as if it was disappearing behind the angel. I started to cry in gratitude for this sign. My husband kept looking for a logical explanation. He thought some glass figurines were causing the rainbow, so he moved them; but the rainbow was still there. Then he removed all mirrors from the wall. The rainbow was still there. Finally, he closed the blinds to block out the sun. Not only was the rainbow still there, but in the darkened room, it looked even brighter. He tried to take a photo of it because "no one will believe this otherwise." The camera lens got stuck and would not open. The rainbow was there for about 20 minutes, and as soon as it faded, the camera lens opened. It had never been stuck before or since.

I do not care to know whether or not there is a logical, physical explanation for that rainbow. We've lived in this house for 30 years and we had never seen a rainbow here before. The rainbow appeared at just the right time, in just the precise location to complete an unfinished sketch, and it came when I was greatly in need of comfort and reassurance. That is all I need to be reassured that our little girl, Chica, is still showing us her love and concern. Our sweet little girl is now an angel that looks out for us with the same great love she always showed us.