In the beginning of the year two thousand, the Angels who tended the dogs at the Rainbow Bridge were filled with gratitude and excitement. One of their own, Freya, the sweetest, most exuberant creature ever to grace the Bridge, was granted a wish: to take on the form of a dog forever and know the love of a family. Freya began to hope for this after watching so many happy reunions and being touched by the love that people and their pets so clearly shared. She knew love and, in fact, was described as personifying loyalty and love, but she felt she was missing the best part. She wanted to be with and love people who were her own. Freya was so sweet in her persistence to hold this wish that she could not be denied. There was such happiness for Freya and for the stories that she would be able to tell everyone. And all at the Bridge were filled with hope and happiness and gratitude for their littlest Angel and her dream. There was some thought given to what type of dog Freya would be. Since she could not begin to pick a favorite, Freya chose to assume a magical combination of physical traits resembling most distinctly…..Freya herself! She would be delicate, with fine bones and beautiful soft, silky fur the color of autumn leaves at sunset. Her face would look to everyone she met like an old and wise friend in a young body.
There was some debate as to whether or not Freya could remain unnoticed on earth, as the beauty and radiance of her spirit was blinding. The solution for this was to diminish Freya’s body. They took away her ability to hear, feeling that if her responses to people and life were slowed, she would appear to be less like the magical being that she was. They also impaired her immune system, just a little bit, to dampen the glow of her inner spiritual light. Now she could blend into the crowd and live as an earthly creature. Almost as an afterthought, they blinded her right eye so that people would see that she viewed life and loved ones with her heart as much as her vision. Ironically, her most visible disability had the least impact on her life or health. She could have cared less in her eagerness to begin her wonderful life with people.
On her way out of the forest, which surrounds the Rainbow bridge, the wisest of the Angelic Guardians, Carla, took Freya’s vulnerable little face in her hands and kissed her forehead. ‘Let this kiss become your third eye, my littlest heart. Earth can be a mean and callous place so you must focus your heart on finding your people. They are already preparing for your presence in their lives but you need to call them. Call them as you are born and as you are sleeping and as your eyes open. Freya closed her eyes and leapt into the darkness, beginning a life where nothing was promised beyond where she landed. And she trusted that she could find her people so all would be everything she’d ever hoped for….. Freya was lucky that puppies’ eyes don’t open for 13 days as there was very little beautiful around her. The feeling of her mother keeping her warm and fed was a gift that made her feel cozy and safe. It was a good beginning as far as she knew. Freya didn’t know that she was in a bathroom of a miserable apartment or that her mother was starving. She knew she felt a love that was stronger than any she’d felt before. She couldn’t hear the people screaming at each other — those little ears that didn’t hear would become Freya’s best protector as her life went on.
One day Freya could see someone making faces and pointing at her face. She didn’t know he was yelling or that he was angry that the littlest puppy had a ‘messed up’ right eye.Before Freya could blink she was brought to the CACC in Manhattan and put in the ‘puppy room’. At this point there was very little hope for her future — who would take a ‘shepherdy puppy’ with a damaged eye? But a woman named Cheryl from MA wanted that puppy because she knew nobody else would. Freya began her journey home with Dale, a rotti rescue volunteer who said from the beginning that there was something different and wonderful about this little girl. A rescuer named Sarah picked up Freya. Sarah had never fostered or rescued a puppy before and wouldn’t have kept Freya if the whole transport hadn’t been filled with miscommunication and accidents. So Freya found herself in the arms of a woman who held her as she drove toward Boston and on the subway to Sarah’s home. Not a bad start, Freya didn’t like crates.
When they got home, it was 8:00 p.m., and Sarah was exhausted. She sat down to rest, looked at the little fur ball walking toward her and said, “Oh goodness, I think you’re Freya.” Sarah had been waiting for 3 years to meet a dog who fit that name. Freya thought, “Yes I am, now can I have some more dog food? And Freya felt a little bit better because she knew her third eye had made the right place happen for her and for Sarah. After 5 days Freya fell ill. It was a blessing that Sarah didn’t know anything about rescue puppies. If she had she would have followed the advice of some and had the little puppy sent away to the Rainbow Bridge with words of how we can’t save them all. Freya was in the hospital for two and a half weeks. Somewhere in the middle of this, her friends from the Bridge came to visit her in the night. They sat around her pillow, careful to avoid the IV, and spoke to her. They told her they were so sorry that she was not going to be able to fulfill all of her dream and that they had probably done too much damage to her ability to fight for her life. They said that they had been casting gauze over the River of Eternity, which runs underneath the Rainbow Bridge, to capture seeds of joy. With the seeds, they planted a garden just to the left of the Bridge. A crop of magnificent flowers were beginning to come up. They’d put up a wooden sign that read ‘Freya’s Garden’ and she could come with them and grow big and tall as the flowers bloomed.
And Freya lived. The vet said he had no idea what type of illness Freya had and that he never wanted to see it again. Sarah brought her little puppy home having no idea of what to do to help Freya recover, but knowing that recovery was possible. She and Freya worked through the next few months by paying attention to most advice given for how to help a puppy get stronger. It was all about teamwork. And Freya discovered her favorite word…fascinating!!! Every person she met, every new store she ran into (and she ran into every store) was fascinating. She got bigger and stronger and remained as beautiful and as enthralled with this world as she had ever been. There was a skin infection that caused most of her hair to fall out but that could be treated so she was sort of bald but recovering nicely and gaining weight.
All was well with Freya, but she had yet to meet her people. While Sarah was devoted to her foster dog she was not home. And some people wanted to ‘adopt’ Freya, but they didn’t seem right to Sarah, who was kind of worn out and afraid of placing Freya in the wrong home. This extraordinary dog needed to go to the home that was meant just for her. Sarah knew this was possible but questioned her ability to make that choice. Freya was not at all riddled with self-doubt about finding her home. She was getting stronger and meeting more people, all of them fantastic and different and fun. Freya had found Sarah, and she would get to the people that would be home: no question, no doubt. One night, Sarah spoke with a woman named Deb. Deb was very interested in meeting Freya and also sad because she had planned to adopt a dog named Angel but that dog was adopted to somebody else. So Sarah and Deb talked, both taking a leap of faith, while Freya played with an empty water bottle like there was no tomorrow.
Deb, her partner Staci and Sarah made plans to meet in the Boston Common on the 4th of July. It was a grey day, and Sarah was early so she and Freya sort of meandered around. Then Sarah saw two women with huge smiles walking toward them and all eyes were smiling at Freya. Needless to say, everyone fell in love that grey afternoon. Freya had a home and this time is was her ‘for real’ home. What a wonderful day it was when Sarah drove Freya from the city to the suburbs. Everybody cried because this was a day of hello and goodbye and it all centered around this little creature who had beaten the odds and lived. Freya had a beautiful green backyard with a fence that would keep her safe. It was her little bit of heaven on earth. Deb had a dog again, and Staci was already learning how much she could love this extraordinary creature, a match made in heaven. The beginning was a little bit interesting, as Freya expressed her adolescent and very uninhibited exuberance at being healthy and alive. She was a handful.
Over time, everyone morphed into a domestic routine. Freya got up with Staci in the morning and when Staci held the green leash she knew she got to go to daycare, where everyone loved her. At night, Deb took care of Freya and then they all went to bed. Deb sent out regular pictures of Freya to let everyone know that she was still beautiful and enjoying the park, her birthday, napping, and all the pictures were gorgeous. Freya’s extended family included two wonderful aunts and friends of the rescue who had taken her in. Time passed, and for a little over two years, life was wonderful. Everyone got comfortable with this precious child, safe in the world.
And then Freya got sick. Just like before, it seemed like it could be simple but she wasn’t getting better. There was reason to believe she could fight against an unknown enemy. She’d done it once before, and she wasn’t yet three so she had youth on her side…But Freya was getting tired. Clearly she was in trouble, and nobody could figure out what was wrong. None of the people who loved her knew that she’d been fighting little sicknesses for her whole life, but her guardians did. With Carla taking the lead, angels from the Rainbow Bridge came to her one Friday night and took control. They told her body to quit and it did. But Freya wanted to stay a little bit longer. On Monday, Deb and Staci chose to send Freya home because they loved her. This world was no longer home for their little girl. Freya closed her mortal eyes and began her journey home to the Garden, already planted and growing, in full bloom bursting with every color.
Right around the time of her third birthday, Miss Freya shed her well loved earthly skin and began the walk toward home. She walked slowly at first, even with Carla holding her green leash and leading the way. She wanted to turn back and give everybody one more kiss and one more hello. So Carla dropped the leash, and Freya ran back to let everyone know she still loved them. It was just an instant, but we all knew Freya was still with us. Her many friends and people would be so happy to know Freya’s forever home.
She will never be alone.
She will never be in pain.
She will see and hear (even though she pretty much always could).
She will spend her time, playing in flowers grown from seeds of joy.
She will greet all the people who come to meet their friends again and forever.
She will live every moment in happiness, the darling of the Rainbow Bridge, waiting for all of us but especially for her people. And when Deb and Staci are reunited with their girl, the Bridge will fall silent, for just a moment, in happiness and celebration, that their littlest angel has her people with her again and for ever.
Take a lesson from Freya. Greet all new creatures with excitement. Find your people and fur angels and when you find them keep them with you and be happy. Love is not a right on this planet — it is a treasure without which our lives have no value.
