by Aaron LaFlora
Dear Chauncie:
It seems like it is too soon for me to come here to The Rainbow Bridge and write another letter to one of my pet children. I thought after the loss of Freecloude last year, you all would hang around and make getting up in the morning such a loving pleasure; after all, you all were not in the age range of leaving to that brightest star in the sky where the Dearly Departed pets go...It grows brighter each time I see it in the night, and that is how I know that another pet child has been sent there.
But you--barely a year old, healthy, happiest when you could spend your day with PJ the cockatiel and toss his bowl of cheerios from his cage or take over his cage (even though you had your own home)and leave him to call me and convince me that you belonged in your own cage..For such a tiny bird, you had the strength and determination of Goliath, and it gave you pleasure to let everyone know that. Yes, I think you enjoyed me coming in there and laughingly scold you and place you gently back into your cage where, the minute I would leave the room, out again to find PJ you would go...
Your antics knew no bounds....so why then did you leave us today? Is it better where you are; you know, they always say when a human dies that "they are in a better place"...I don't understand that and ask what is wrong with here or maybe I want to be in that better place too...I don't know....You know me, most of the time, I don't understand the human way of thinking and being angry and unforgiving...unlike you all in your little animal world...you all seem to work it out somehow no matter how different from one another your acquaintances are..you say, "hmmmm" and speak within your own language, your own gestures, and it is done and over with...buddies for life..unconditional love and affection....Even when you tormented PJ, he would cry for you if I took you to another room for a little while...As afraid of you he was, he loved you as you were made and born and that was that....
Well, I knew just the other day that you were sick because you didn't dump over Pj's bowl of cheerios...And you were breathing so hard...Talking to you and the antibiotics I gave to you (sorry, I know you didn't like the syringe in your mouth)did not seem to help...And I knew that if I brought you into the vet, all the tests they would have wanted to do on you would take anything you had left in that determination of yours and wring it out of you. Sometimes vets do that only because that is what they are taught in the human world..
Well Chauncie, I tried to make you as comfortable as possible and knew that probably there was something wrong with your heart that could not be fixed....I even prayed to that St. Jude who is the saint of the impossible...He has been kind to me from time to time, but even he (or she) decided that you belonged up amoung that bright star in the heavens...
So that is why this morning, when I held you in my hand, close to my own beating heart--that is why I told you that you could relax and let go because I didn't want you to suffer...I knew you were staying around for PJ and me and the rest of us....
And you knew what I was saying, because not 10 seconds later, your head turned slightly into that little hug in my fingertips and your pounding heart stopped and relaxed and you were gone...just like that..
And I held you close to my ear and listened, but you had already spread your wings for that long journey to that brightest star in the sky...
I had to try and explain this to PJ you know...he is sad and looking at an empty cage and wondering....yet, he is not crying out for you because maybe, just maybe, you came down for a few minutes to tell him goodbye?
I hope you were happy in your short time on this earth; we sure will miss you. And you know we all did the best we could for you;Like you did for us..thank you for loving us as we are...you were beautiful inside and out, but you knew that....I told you everytime I left the room that I loved you and so does Jesus...
You are in good hands now and paws....and claws...like I said Chauncie, the star gets brighter every day...fly free my baby and let the wind hold you close within its wings, and if you hear it whistle sometimes, it is only us missing you and remembering all that you taught us...we love you so much..so very much..always and forever and all the places in between....
mum, PJ,Zaine, Ishmel, Jupiter's Moon, Popocateptl and the rest of all the friends you made that are too many to be named...