Annie Crosses the Rainbow Bridge

Annie's "angel watch" continued peacefully throughout Sunday night and ended on Monday morning when she quietly left us for the Rainbow Bridge. At more than 15 years old, Annie had a good long life and remained sound in spirit, but her body, in particular her kidney's had failed her. It was a good fight that she fought well and hard for more than 2 years.

Annie was to me, the classic senior Golden Retriever, the real 24 karat gold and a true gem in every sense.  I felt a connection to Annie the first day I met her on a cold rainy day in April of 2012. That day her owner Steve, in the final stages of cancer, kissed her head for the last time, whispered something in her ear, and with tears welling up in his eyes as he handed me her leash, he made me promise to take good care of her. I promised him that I would.    ...I have kept my promise.

From the first day that Annie arrived at Golden Pines, she was accepted by the entire crew. Annie quickly became a full-fledged member of our pack and was intertwined within the fabric of all our lives.  Her loss has left Golden Pines with an emptiness that will never be filled again.  The verse below by Henry van Dyke seems perfect for Annie and provides comfort for me as I think about her being met on the other side by her family that loved her first, and her sister Sydney, her life's companion, who died a year before Annie came to us. A friend said to me today that "the luckiest people in the world have shared their life with a good dog."  I am indeed very lucky because for two years, I got to share my life with a beautiful girl named Annie.

“A Parable of Immortality” by Henry van Dyke.

I am standing by the seashore.

A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze

and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength,

and I stand and watch

until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud

just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, ‘There she goes!

Gone where? Gone from my sight – that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar

as she was when she left my side

and just as able to bear her load of living freight

to the place of destination.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says,

‘There she goes! ‘ ,

there are other eyes watching her coming,

and other voices ready to take up the glad shout:

‘Here she comes!’

God speed my beautiful Miss Ann.  Our time with you went much too quickly.  But I know we will see you again when our time comes to cross the Rainbow Bridge.