‘I was always there for her when she cried for Rocky,’ I said sadly. Sometimes I felt my work had not been done successfully, especially when the angel said, ‘She still does cry for him.’
‘So I didn’t really complete my work, did I?’ I asked.
‘Wait,’ said my angel. Time is different here in the spirit world. Already the earth years have rolled on since you’ve been here. TammyLee has a job now, and soon she will have her own home and two little girls to love. And Rocky is a big boy now. Many more years will pass, and in the meantime, you can choose to be happy, or sad.’
I chose to be happy, most of the time, and I accepted that TammyLee was going to be on earth for a long time. Yet still I had that ache in my heart. I figured Amber might come over and imagined running to meet her with my tail up. I dreamed of the games we would play, the joy as we raced around together, the bliss as we curled up to sleep. Amber and I had been real buddies, and she’d inspired me to play the way she did, with ridiculous energy and enthusiasm.
I watched lots of dogs come over the rainbow bridge, and none of them were remotely like Amber. No other dog had such a coat of bright gold, and a tail that wagged so fast and shone so silver.
On one occasion, I did see a dog the same colour, but she was old and droopy. Her tail hung down like a rope, her eyes were dull, as if she could hardly see, and even from a distance, I sensed the tiredness, the weight of her, and the pain.
It couldn’t possibly be Amber.
Yet something compelled me to watch this pathetic old creature staring up at the rainbow bridge as if it was a mountain. She was moving, but only just, crawling, dragging herself up through the deep blue side of the rainbow.
No, it couldn’t possibly be Amber. Or could it?
I sat up. My fur was tingling, and there was a longing in my heart. And why was I purring? Such a powerful purr, like never before, a purr that sent ripples right over the rainbow bridge.
The poor old lump of a dog was moving faster. Her eyes were brighter, her legs straighter, her coat more golden. It was as if she suddenly realised she was free, she was not in that old body any more.
The transformation happened smoothly as the dog reached the highest point of the rainbow bridge. Her fur glowed, her silver tail began to wave like a plume, her soft nose lifted and her face shone with joy. It WAS Amber! As she crossed the bridge, she became young again, a magnificent silky goddess of a dog.
I ran towards her with my tail streaming and sparks flying from my fur. We collided in a whirling, squirming, tail-wagging galaxy of pure joy. It went on and on, and when at last we flopped down and curled around each other, Amber looked puzzled.
‘How did I get here?’ she asked.
‘You must have died,’ I replied.
‘I don’t remember dying,’ Amber said. ‘TammyLee and Max took me to the vet … and Diana came in her wheelchair. It was SO humiliating. I couldn’t walk, I was so old, and it hurt all along my back. I couldn’t even wag my tail, and THAT made me so sad. I was the saddest, most uselessdog. The vet said I had to be put down, whatever that means. They let me lie on my blanket. Max just stood there, with his cheek twitching, but TammyLee and Diana cuddled me, and Diana said, ‘Thank you for being our dog,’ and then I woke up next to this rainbow. I saw some other dogs going over, and I knew I had to try … and look at me.’
I listened, spellbound.
‘You’ve come home, Amber,’ I said, ‘This is the spirit world … don’t you remember?
‘But I’ll miss Diana.’
‘You can wait for her, we both will, but time is different here,’ I told her. ‘Things don’t take so long … not years and years like they do on earth. And you’ve got me.’
Our time together passed in a haze of contentment. It didn’t seem like years, but it was obvious from the glimpses I had of TammyLee that numerous earth years had passed. She had two little girls now, and her own home with a tiny square of garden. When I managed to look at her eyes, there was still that shadow in them, the shadow of Rocky. I began to wonder if I would have to go back, and start over, and be her cat again. Until, one day, my angel called my name.
The sudden blaze of her flight startled Amber and me as we lay dreaming and sleeping. I was in the middle of an impressive purring session, which stopped abruptly as I heard the angel call my name, It echoed across the universe.
‘Tallulah! Talloo … LAHHHH …’
The angel swept her cloak of stars around us like a blizzard of glitter.
‘Come quickly,’ she cried, ‘quickly, Tallulah … it’s TammyLee. Come quickly.’
She scooped me up and whisked me through the landscape, and Amber came lolloping and wagging, her ears flying, her face radiant with excitement.
‘You HAVE to see this, Tallulah!’ The angel parted the veils of light at a thin place. We all gazed through into TammyLee’s square of garden.