Chesapeake Safe Harbor

GwR 517 History of Rainbow Bridge
This post was written for 'CBR Love' group. JOIN it to see more posts
Edna Clyne was nineteen years old and living in Inverness, Scotland, in 1959, when her Labrador Retriever named Major died. He was her first dog. Not the family’s first, there had been others in the house, but the first that had been hers alone.
The day after Major died, Edna felt a compulsion. There was something she needed to write, and while she hadn’t preconceived any of it, it was there, words longing to be heard. She remembers it being a warm and wonderful feeling, like Major himself was guiding her in what to write.
Nineteen year old Edna envisioned a kind of 'limbo', where deceased pets are returned to their most healthy state... where their spirit awaits the arrival of their earthly human companion, so that they may cross the Bridge together, to achieve true and eternal paradise in each other’s company, and to thereafter never again be parted.
Edna showed it to some other people who were close to her, and then she put the paper away, not showing it to anyone else for a long time. Years later, after getting married, Edna Clyne-Rekhy showed it to her new husband, who thought it was wonderful and suggested that she publish it. Edna didn’t want to publish it, telling him it was something private between herself and Major. But it wasn’t so private that she couldn’t share it with friends. She decided to make a few copies. She didn’t have access to any sort of photocopy machine, so she typed them out individually and gave them to people she was close to.
These copies started to find their way out into the World! They had no details on them to indicate who had authored Rainbow Bridge. By the early 1990s copies had crossed the Atlantic and were being shared by animal lovers’ groups in the United States. This was still a very small and obscure audience. But in early 1994 a reader who had seen the words printed in a Humane Society newsletter wrote to Dear Abby.
The work of mother and daughter team of Pauline and Jeanne Phillips, Dear Abby was the largest circulation syndicated newspaper column in the United States, offering advice and words of wisdom to an audience of 100,000,000 readers. On February 20, 1994, Dear Abby printed the letter, which advised, “if you print this you had better warn your readers to get out their hankies before they read it,” and was signed by “An old softy in Grand Rapids, Michigan.” And underneath was the entire text of Rainbow Bridge.
It provoked an overwhelming response, mailbags full of letters from pet owners who had been touched, as if these words were exactly the ones they had been waiting all their lives to hear. The world now had Rainbow Bridge - but Rainbow Bridge had arrived with no author's name!
Dear Abby recognized the oversight in publishing the text anonymously, and had in the same column asked her readers to please write in with a name so it could be properly credited and its creator recognized. None did.
Lacking a single author, Rainbow Bridge soon had many, as various animal experts and grief counselors stepped forward to claim the words as theirs. Booklets started to appear helping to justify their claims, although since none of them appeared before Dear Abby ran the text it is hard to see how they had any credibility. The United States Copyright Office lists fifteen separate claims under the title of Rainbow Bridge within five years of Dear Abby’s column.
The identity of the real author might have remained a mystery, if it were not for the curiosity and the determination of one man to discover the author. Paul Koudounaris is an American author and photographer. He is one of the world's leading experts on pet cemeteries and animal burials. He researched the different claimed sources for the author of Rainbow Bridge. In an old Chat Group, he found a brief reference to Edna.
In 2023, when Paul reached out to her, Edna was 82 years old. She agreed to send him a photo of the original draft that she had written back in 1959. The original version was stored in a box of odds and ends in her attic - marked, “If you can’t find it, it’s in here"!
He said that he knew immediately that he had located the real author of Rainbow Bridge.
When asked about the people who had claimed authorship of her writing, Edna said
it was wrong of people to try to claim it as theirs, and like anyone who has poured their heart into a text she’s not too keen on the alternate versions floating around, with people having changed some of her original prose.
More than anything though, she is simply flattered that something she wrote so long ago has resonated with such a vast number of people—the fact that it has comforted so many is the greatest possible homage to her love for Major. Not that she has ever fully understood the extent of her accomplishment. Edna had never even heard of the Dear Abby column, which reached 100,000,000 Americans. She knew nothing about the inscribed tablets in pet cemeteries. She had also never heard the abbreviation ATB, which stands for: “At The Bridge,” and that there are entire mourning groups based around those three letters, which signify the pets waiting to meet their owners at a place she invented for Major.
In 2023, when 82 year old Edna retrieved the original copy from that box in the attic, it was 63 years since she had written the 'Rainbow Bridge'. However, when she re-read her original copy, she started to cry - the memories of her dog Major still stir strong emotions for her.
The Rainbow Bridge
By Edna Clyne-Rekhy
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, your pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water, and sunshine, and friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who have been ill and old are restored to health and strength, those who were hurt are made better and strong again, like we remember them before they go to heaven.
They are happy and content except for one small thing, they each miss someone very special to them who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance, his bright eyes are shineing (sic), his body shakes.
Suddenly he begins to run from the herd, rushing over the grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cuddle in a happy hug never to be apart again.
You and your pet are in tears. Your hands again cuddle his head and you look again into his trusting eyes, so long gone from life, but never absent from your heart, and then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together.
Next Steps:
About three years ago, I started collecting the links to the most useful Chessie Posts in the multiple groups that I monitor. The ~500 posts are Categorized, then Sorted into a spreadsheet called 'Search Chessie Posts'.
One of the Categories that Posts are grouped under is called: 'Death'. These are a collection of Posts that might be useful before or after the death of a favored pet.
This post 'Growing with Raffie' # 517 'History of Rainbow Bridge' has been added into that spreadsheet. If any of those posts might be useful to members of the Chessie community, I can share the link to a single post, or the links to many of them.
Here are the current posts in the Category of 'Death'.
If you would like any of the links, please send me a request via PM
Posts in 'Death' Category of 'Search Chessie Posts' spreadsheet
Is it too early, or too late ?
Knowing when to say Goodbye
When is it Time ?? (GwR 344)
When is it Time, Agreed?? (GwR 452)
Grief Support - Stay emotionally connected
I have been lucky..., but not today
History of Rainbow Bridge (GwR 517)
Letter from the Rainbow Bridge
Memory: Book for departed friends
Memory: Nose or Paw Print
Memory: Picture
Memory: Picture & Paw Print
Poem: Jimmy Stewart's Poem w video: Beau
Poem: Proof that a Dog Lives Here… (GwR 378)
Poem: Stop all the clocks
The Best Thing about Loving your Dog
The Last Battle poem
The Privilege of having Loved (GwR 409)
They make you feel Alive
Tribute: One Last Hunt for Gauge
Understanding Grief: Ball in a Box Analogy (GwR 376)
Writings: Jim Carey on 'Death'
Sources
Paul Koudounaris: https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/.../the-rainbow.../
Paul was interviewed for a podcast on the subject of Rainbow Bridge. I found this was most interesting from ~21 minutes in...
https://deathintheafternoon.libsyn.com/interview-uncovering-pet-deaths-greatest-mystery?
Images may be subject to Copyright

Growing with Raffie # 397
Dewclaws: Keep or Remove? (Incl Dr. Zink article)

My choice is 'Keep'!.. but to avoid this becoming a competition of opinions, the Answer is always a *personal one* !!
If you're sharing an 'opinion', please include any references or supportive details.

REAR Dewclaws are generally removed very soon after birth - and the majority of people are very comfortable with this decision, which aligns with AKC Breed Standard for Chessies:"Dewclaws, if any, must be removed from the hind legs. Disqualifications: Dewclaws on the hind legs are a disqualification" NOTE: The AKC Standard for some Breeds 'require' the rear dewclaws - e.g. Beauceron: because they are functional double dewclaws. Double dewclaws form well separated "thumbs" with nails, placed rather close to the foot. Disqualification - Anything less than double dewclaws on each rear leg." Source:https://images.akc.org/pdf/breeds/standards/ChesapeakeBayRetriever.pdfhttps://images.akc.org/pdf/breeds/standards/Beauceron.pdf
FRONT Dew Claws - Keep or Remove?
CBR Breed Standard: "Dewclaws on the forelegs may be removed"
Source: https://images.akc.org/pdf/breeds/standards/ChesapeakeBayRetriever.pdf.These dewclaws don't touch the ground when the dog is standing, but dogs use their dewclaws for gaining traction on ice in slippery winter conditions, and when running at full speed.
Muscles and tendons connected to the dewclaw suggest that they are part of the dog’s ambulatory ability. Though not proven, their removal is suspected to cause arthritis later in life.
Anyone worried that the dog might damage their dewclaws can reduce this risk significantly by trimming the nails regularly, though NOT with guillotine clippers. Filing your dog's nails with a ceramic file is probably the least stressful option for your dog. It's essentially silent and has minimal vibration, and can round the *Sides* of the nails which really helps to reduce any chance of cracking or splitting. You can you get them very short/ smooth/ round....
Ceramic File: QEP Ceramic Tile File 10091q retails for around $13
GwR 154: 'Dewclaws getting long?' https://www.facebook.com/share/v/12DD1KZfWJ2/
Article quoted in full for discussion purposes: The Case for Dewclaws
by Dr. Chris Zink, DVM PhD DACVSMR.
I am a vet that works exclusively with performance dogs, developing rehabilitation programs for injured dogs or dogs that have had surgery as a result of performance-related injuries. I have seen many dogs now, especially field trial/hunt test and agility dogs, that have had chronic carpal arthritis, frequently so severe that they have to be retired or at least carefully managed for the rest of their careers. Of the over 30 dogs I have seen with carpal arthritis, only one has had dewclaws. The others have all had them removed.

If you look at an anatomy book (Miller’s Guide to the Anatomy of Dogs is an excellent one – see figure below) you will see that there are 5 tendons attached to the dewclaw. Of course, at the other end of a tendon is a muscle, and that means that if you cut off the dew claws, there are 5 muscle bundles that will become atrophied from disuse.
Those muscles indicate that the dewclaws have a function. That function is to prevent torque on the leg. Each time the foot lands on the ground, particularly when the dog is cantering or galloping, the dewclaw is in touch with the ground. If the dog then needs to turn, the dewclaw digs into the ground to support the lower leg and prevent torque. If the dog doesn’t have a dewclaw, the leg twists. A lifetime of that and the result can be carpal arthritis. Remember: the dog is doing the activity regardless, and the pressures on the leg have to go somewhere. They can be absorbed by the dewclaw, or they will move up and down the leg to the toes, carpus, elbow, and shoulders.
Perhaps you are thinking, “I never have had one of my dogs have carpal pain or arthritis.” Well, we need to remember that dogs, by their very nature, do not tell us about mild to moderate pain. If a dog was to be asked by an emergency room nurse to give the level of his pain on a scale from 0 o 10, with 10 being the worst, their scale would be 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Most of our dogs, especially if they deal with pain that is of gradual onset, just deal with it and don’t complain unless it is excruciating. But when I palpate the carpal joints of older dogs without dewclaws, I almost always elicit pain with relatively minimal manipulation.
As to the possibility of injuries to dew claws. Most veterinarians will say that such injuries actually are not very common at all. And if they do occur, then they are dealt with like any other injury. In my opinion, it is far better to deal with an injury than to cut the dew claws off of all dogs “just in case.”
Source: https://www.retrievertraining.net/threads/the-case-for-dewclaws.213870/

Are the opinions of Dr. Chris Zink worth relying on?!
Vet & PhD ... and someone who works dogs and has titled many... I challenge you to find anyone with greater knowledge or respect in the industry!
"Previously named Veterinarian of the Year by the AVMA, Dr. Chris Zink is an award-winning author of numerous books and co-editor of the first ever book on Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Co-Founder of Avidog-Zink Ventures, and a world-renowned expert in canine sports medicine and rehabilitation, with over 200 titles in Agility, Obedience, Conformation, Tracking, Hunt Tests, Barn Hunt, Nosework, Coursing, and Rally on dogs from the Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier and Herding groups. Dr. Zink was also instrumental in establishing the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation as the newest specialty in veterinary medicine."Source: https://gooddog.com/good-breeder-center/canine-health-fitness-with-dr-zink and https://avmajournals.avma.org/page/Zink-Bio/zinkbio.


For more of these Growing with Raffie Posts, please consider visiting 'Chesapeake Bay Retriever Love' group https://facebook.com/groups/chesapeakebayretrieverlove

Growing with Raffie # 378
Poem: Proof that a Dog Lives Here

This is by Josie Balka -
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15zt9gmAeg/

It is a beautiful poem -
Whether one is grieving a recent loss;
- or Remembering a dog who touched your heart in the past;
- or Enjoying a Dog's companionship right now, but knowing that Time moves too fast...

I'm posting this on February 14th...
But in just 7 more days, it will be February 21st.
What's the significance of that date, you might well ask ...!

January has 31 days
Add an additional 21 days in February...
Makes 52 days in total

Dogs lives are much shorter than ours -
Which people estimate as being seven dog years to each human year.
365 days being one human year, for seven dog years.
365 ÷ 7 = one dog year = 52 days

On February 21st, our canine companions will have lived 'a year, in dog terms' of 2025.

By February 21st...
Will you have given your dog a full 'dog year's worth' of special experiences?
Will you have stepped away from the TV/ Computer/ Phone enough...?.. enough to know, that for the first 'Dog Year' of 2025, you made those days really special for your canine companion ??

There are so many Memories that are visited in this poem, that I wish the poem could be read at half of this speed...!

Instead, of just slowing the recording, if someone has access to *typed* version of this poem (or if they care to create a typed up version), I'll be glad to add it to this post... that way, people can choose to read it at their own speed... while picturing the scenes in their lives that these words inspire.

I will ADD this Post to the 'Search Chessie Posts' spreadsheet that is available to members of the 'Chesapeake Bay Retriever Love' group. There is a section on 'Death', with links to memorable posts on the following topics:
- Preparing for the departure of a loved companion;
- Determining 'When' it is Time;
- Creating keepsakes...;
- Adjusting to the loss of a loved one...

My heart goes out to those people (and indeed, to those DOGS) who are struggling with the loss of a cherished companion...

The stronger we 'LOVE',
The greater the LOSS that we can feel,
When our Friend / Companion is no longer breathing the air in front of us...