Those of us who have had our lives enriched and blessed by our wonderful furkids know the joy they bring....their unconditional love, their eagerness to please, their unrelenting devotion.  We also know the inevitable grief that comes when it is time to let them go.

This section is dedicated in loving memory and honor to Hip Dog's Bridgekids....the ones no longer with us here on earth, but waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge.  You touched us in your own unique ways, and we'll never be the same because of it.

Ariel	Brit	Chester	Chipper	Davis	Deion
Dim	Dobie	Fred	Handsome	JJ	Jessie	Joey
Mr. Puppy	Monkey	Napa	Otis Picture coming  soon	Rodney	Samantha Jane	Tahoe
Kramer	Meg	Bailey

Look for me not here, for I have flown away

My body grew weak, and here I could not stay

But my spirit lives, although you cannot see

It continues on, the essence that is me

For, you must recall, what is loved never dies

In the bright sun see the sparkle of my eyes

In sun-kissed grass feel my silky-soft, warm fur; 

Feel my gentle breaths when summer breezes stir

A soft rose petal--just like my velvet nose;

A pussy-willow--just like my plushy toes

Fuzzy dandelions are like my tail of fluff;

Open your senses--you'll know me sure enough

My whiskers' tickle, the grass on your bare feet;

My hind feet thumping in Earth's own rhythmic beat

A leaf on your face, the soft tips of my ears...

Just pay attention--look! hear! feel! through your tears

Always in your heart, and ever in your mind--

You needn't look far--would I leave you behind?

We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, 

live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached.

Unable to accept its awful gaps we still would live no other way.

We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, 

never fully understanding the necessary plan.

Irving Townsend

Until one has loved an animal,

a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

-Anatole France

. . In one winter two disastrous events happened at the same time, each of which made an impact on my life. First, a number of men were killed in a mining accident . . . The other tragic event was having our 15-year-old cat 'put to sleep.' Can you guess which of those events caused me to cry my eyes out? You guessed it - the cat!

There is scarcely any comparison between the loss of human life and the end of a semi-crippled old cat. But Samantha was my cat. I loved her. She was a permanent part of our history. Her loss was not an academic thing. I didn't look at television or newspaper accounts of her death and say, "That's too bad!" and go on to the sports page. She was mine. Her loss plunged me into grief . . . This was my loss and at that moment, as far as I was concerned, it was the worst thing to happen in the whole world. I didn't want anyone to tell me how great it was that she didn't suffer, or how far beyond a normal life expectancy she had lived.

I wasn't very objective about the loss of Samantha as compared to the mining disaster, or the loss of my parents some years earlier or the starving masses in the Third World. Grief is like that. It isn't helped by saying, "How childishly you are behaving over a cat!"

I have known deeper times of grief . . . I have held the hands of friends as they died, baptized stillborn infants, helped families decide when to disconnect life-support systems and worked with parents whose children were murdered.

Each of those experiences was painful. Nevertheless, at the moment my cat died, her loss was the very worst kind of grief for me in the whole world . . .

Never apologize for grieving. Remind yourself as often as needed that the very worst kind of loss is always yours. Learn to acknowledge that your loss is worthy of grief . . .

- Bob Deits, in Life After Loss: A Practical Guide to Renewing Your Life After Experiencing Major Loss