My sweet retriever, Karma, was buried at the pet cemetery today. For three years she lived with cancer, but she lost the battle at the age of 15. Karma looked like a black golden retriever, with long, midnight-black hair, as soft and shiny as mink. She came into my life when she was two months old, and we loved each other more than I can say -- I was her mom, and she was my little girl.

A week before Karma died, I had the vet come to my house because Karma was experiencing pain, and I didn't want Karma to be terrified by taking her to the vet (she'd been there so many times). The vet prescribed pain medicine and said that Karma's time was drawing near, but not yet. The vet also mentioned Rainbow Bridge, which I'd never heard of, but I supposed it was just another name for heaven. By coincidence, a few days later, I found the "Rainbow Bridge" poem on petloss.com. I thought it was a nice story, but I really couldn't believe it, because there was no fact or proof to base my belief upon.

The pain medicine didn't help Karma's pain, and the cancer became more aggressive. Her appetite dwindled, and she wouldn't drink the water I offered her. I could see my baby was suffering, so I called the vet and asked her to come back and free Karma from her pain in the only way that was left -- euthanasia. It was the hardest, most heartbreaking decision I ever had to make in my life.

The funeral was very peaceful. I was alone, except for the funeral director and the gravediggers. Rain was predicted, and I was afraid it would interfere, but it held off until they were shoveling the dirt back into the ground, and it only sprinkled for a few minutes, then stopped.

After the funeral, as I was driving home, heading east, dark gray storm clouds were approaching from the west and accumulating overhead, and it began to rain again. As the raindrops fell on the windshield and the windshield wipers moved back and forth before my eyes, I started thinking about how Karma had suffered during the last week of her life, and I got all teary-eyed, feeling guilty, wondering if I had kept her with me too long before making the decision to let her go. Just then, at that very moment, looking out my windshield I saw on the horizon in the eastern sky, where the sun was still shining between white clouds above the mountains, a rainbow! But it wasn't like any other rainbow I've ever seen. It wasn't in the shape of a curved arc. It looked like a slanted stairway (or a bridge) going from the earth to the sky. I was amazed, and I knew it wasn't just coincidence. It was confirmation. It was fact, and it was proof (to me) that there really is a Rainbow Bridge. And Karma (or God) was letting me know that she's there, and she's all right.

This is a true story.