The thought of losing a pet is very depressing for any pet owner. But have you ever heard of the Rainbow Bridge, the mythical pet heaven? Supposedly, when a pet passes, it goes to the Rainbow Bridge to be eventually reunited with its owner. A friend of mine once explained another version to me: “when we die, all of the animals we ever loved—not necessarily ours—will greet us and welcome us to heaven.”
Dogs are innately devoted to their human parents, but the following paragons of loyalty definitely deserve a spot at the Rainbow Bridge. Here are their moving life stories.
1. Hachiko – For a year, this akita was used to seeing his master off to work and waiting for him to come home at the Shibuya railway station in Japan. One day, his master died at the university where he was working. He never returned to Hachiko, who as always, was waiting for him at the train station. For 11 years until his death, Hachiko appeared at the station around the time the train was due to arrive. He became popular among the townsfolk and a statue of him was erected in his honor at the Shibuya Station.
2. Heidi – When Heidi’s owner, Graham Snell, fell about 500 feet during a hike through the hills at Scotland, his search team found the Jack Russell terrier standing guard over his body. It had been two days since Snell had died upon falling and apparently, Heidi had scrambled 500 feet down to get to him.
3. Bobbie the Wonder Dog – This Scotch collie-English shepherd mix was separated from his owners during a family road trip to Indiana. When the family’s efforts to look for Bobbie failed, they went home to Oregon, which was some 2,800 miles away from Indiana. Six months after, Bobbie suddenly showed up on their doorstep, very skinny, dirty, and with his feet worn to the bone. He had endured walking back home, crossing an entire stretch of desert, plain, and mountains during winter. He was featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
4. Greyfriars Bobby – Bobby and his master John Gray were together for two years until Gray’s death 1858 because of tuberculosis. Written accounts say that Bobby, a skye terrier, spent the last 14 years of life sitting or lying on his friend’s grave, only leaving to look for food. He died on top of his master’s grave.
5. Ruswarp – In 1990, the border collie and his owner Graham Nuttall went for a walk in the woods. When they didn’t return as expected, neighbors started a search for them. After three winter months, a hiker stumbled upon Nuttall’s body, with a cold and starving Ruswarp standing guard by its side. Ruswarp was so weak he had to be carried by rescuers.
I love Papi to bits, but I can’t imagine him possessing even half the courage or loyalty these dogs have displayed. He’s quite the stubborn and arrogant shih-tzu who’s in denial that he’s not a human being. However, given the way he greets me and my husband whenever we come home (tail wagging, rearing to jump on us, with his tongue sticking out almost like a smile—no fail, each and every time we come home as though he never ever gets sick of us), we’ve got to hand it to him that he’s done his job—and a good one at that.
(Photo source: Hachiko - Wikimedia Commons; Greyfriars Bobby - Wikimedia Commons)
