Animals and the Afterlife (31 page)

Filou

Bé Courtadet, College German Teacher and Cross-Stitch Designer Bressuire, France

M
Y NAME IS
B
É
C
OURTADET
. I am married and without children. I teach German at a college in a small French provincial town. For twelve- and-a-half years, my husband Jean and I had a dog named Filou whose breed is called Labrit (a Pyrenean shepherd dog).

Filou died of liver cancer, although no sign of disease had been apparent then.

We loved our dog very much—especially me, which is why I insisted on being present on the morning when the vet put him to sleep. I held Filou very close, his head against mine, when he was given the injection.

On the afternoon of that same day, Jean and I drove to an animal crematorium, a two-hour drive from home. I absolutely wanted to be with my dog every step of the way. We wanted to place him in the incinerator ourselves, to be there when the cremation was over to receive his ashes. I did not want to let go of the sight of his body, to avoid any mix-up. I wanted to be absolutely sure that I would get back his ashes! (I also refused that his ashes be reduced to powder, as this would have happened in a room out of bounds to customers.) Everything took place as we wished, till at the last minute, I noticed that a small piece of bone had not been placed in the container with the rest of the ashes. I then thought that it did not really matter as the incineration was over, so I said nothing and we drove back home with Filou’s ashes, a two-hour drive back.

On the drive back, I thought again of this little lost piece of bone and felt very uneasy. I had the impression that something was unfinished, that I had left something of Filou behind where it should not be. I mentioned it several times to my husband Jean, who kept reassuring me and saying that the essential task had been done: We were bringing home Filou’s remains. At first, I felt reassured, but doubts kept coming back. I was again telling Jean about the little bone that we had left behind. I was not looking at anything in particular, just at the road straight ahead of me, and suddenly I looked up and saw a rainbow, just in front of us. We both saw it. At first, I did not associate it with an ADC [after-death communication] sign, but then the idea came to my mind and I said, “This is a sign from Filou, who is telling me that the little piece of bone is not important, that he is here with us, alive in an elsewhere where he is whole again, in the serenity of the Light.” Otherwise, why would this rainbow have appeared precisely when I could not find peace about this little bone I had left behind? I then felt relieved. An inner serenity replaced the anxiety I had felt about the bone.

The next day, toward the end of the afternoon, we were on the road again. I was driving and asking, “Filou, give us another sign!” Then, ahead of us in the sky, I saw part of a rainbow, near where the sun was (the day before, the rainbow had been in the direction opposite to the sun). At the beginning of the afternoon, a young Labrit dog had crossed our path: He was about two years old, and he looked exactly like Filou at that age. His tail and ears had also not been cut (unlike what is normally done with the breed, but that we had refused to do).

The day after (Thursday), a van cut straight in front of me to make a turn when I was driving back home from college. On the side of the van, in big letters and straight in front of my windscreen was painted a rainbow, the logo of the small company that owned the van.

On Friday, we left to spend the weekend at the seaside. Jean was driving. We always take the same road to go to the seaside resort. I was not thinking about anything in particular when my glance felt attracted to a painted sign on the right side of the road. It marked the entrance of a house on the outskirts of a small village: RAINBOW was written in green capital letters on a white background.

On Saturday morning, we were walking on the beach. At the end of the first lap of our walk, I was looking at the reflection of the sun in the water on the beach when I saw a purple shimmer in a sunlit spot on the wet sand. I looked at the sky and saw just in front of us part of a rainbow near the sun. We looked at it for a long period of time; then we turned back. A moment later, we looked back and saw that the purple shimmer had become paler.

The same happened on Sunday morning. Same walk on the beach. I was looking at the flight of a seagull: first to our right, it was flying low on the surface of the waves; then it climbed to the left toward the sky. Halfway in its flight, in the background of the seagull, I saw another part of a rainbow. Again, it was close to the sun and straight ahead of us.

The following day, on Monday, Jean was alone and saw “his” rainbow: He was driving when he glanced in the opposite direction to where he was previously looking. He saw a billboard. It was the same rainbow logo of the same small company as the van earlier.

What an experience! Seven days in a row since the day when Filou passed on we had had a rainbow: four whole or partial rainbows in the sky and three symbolic or pictorial rainbows.

I believe that Filou has shown us that he is still here, that he wanted to bring us peace and serenity, knowing that we would feel very empty now without him since we had loved him so much!

We scattered Filou’s ashes in a place in the Pyrenean mountains where we often went walking with him.

T
HE STORY GOES ON
….

Exactly two weeks after Filou passed on, at breakfast I was explaining to my husband, Jean, what I had been reading the previous evening: that symbolically speaking, the rainbow is a bridge between Heaven and Earth. At the end of the afternoon, whilst I had not been out all day, I drove out to go to my piano lesson, about 30 kilomètres away from home, just like every week at this time. I was singing “Over the Rainbow” from
The Wizard of Oz
and thinking about Filou at the same time (because now Filou’s memory is closely associated with the rainbow). I then looked to the left and saw yet another rainbow in the sky. I had to make a turn and found myself directly facing this very beautiful and very bright rainbow, which was shaped in a way that the others had not been: it was brighter in its lower part; it started from behind the trees (so visually exactly on the horizon line close to the earth) and reached into the clouds but stopped halfway in its curve. I immediately thought that Filou was confirming the remark I had made in the morning: “You see, this rainbow really makes the junction between Heaven and Earth.” I was able to see this rainbow for the whole duration of my journey because it was exactly in front of me more or less constantly. When I reached my destination, by the roundabout before entering the town, I thanked Filou in my mind for this magnificent rainbow, and I said to him: “Okay, you can remove it now!” And the rainbow vanished in a couple of seconds….

I am now convinced that my beloved Filou lives happily in another dimension and that he hears and sees what we are doing! It doesn’t matter if other people don’t believe it! I believe it because I saw it!

Since Filou has gone, I continue to “meet” rainbows on the way, when I have thought about him minutes or hours before. I
know
that Filou’s life is going on and I am a part of it!

Shelley

Monica van den Tillaart, Homemaker (Former Executive Secretary) Doorn, The Netherlands

S
O THE INEVITABLE HAPPENED
. We had been playing on the beach at 4
P.M
. and our dog Shelley, a sheltie, was dead at 8
P.M
. She started vomiting blood, and knowing her medical history, the vet advised us to let her go. I held her in my arms while she fell asleep. We told her we loved her and that we were grateful for her unconditional love and companionship all those eleven beautiful years. When the vet gave her the lethal injection, I held her and saw the little twitching of the muscles in her muzzle, and I swear I saw her smile!

Shelley was sort of obsessed with mice. In the winter we always have mice come up to the bird feeder, and Shelley would stand in front of the window looking at them. It was difficult for her to choose between going outside for a walk or looking at the mice! And guess what happened…. We had brought her to the crematorium, and when we returned home at the summer house, we saw a little mouse right in front of our car! As if it was a sign!

According to ancient belief, the soul stays three days near the body. Saturday was the third day after Shelley’s death. We collected her urn on Friday and have her here in the summer house with us. Apart from that, someone sent me a beautiful story about the Rainbow Bridge. When beloved pets die, they cross the Rainbow Bridge to walk to Heaven. And guess what we saw Saturday morning? A beautiful rainbow that reached, like a bridge, from our summer house to Heaven! Isn’t that beautiful? Needless to say, I cried, but it was so gorgeous. I am so happy I was able to see this. I will cherish those ‘signs’ forever!

Kim’s note:
Monica added the following when I contacted her one year later….

Yesterday it was a year since Shelley died. A lot has happened in that year. We got lots of signs. The most amazing was the following: One day we were walking on the beach, and April and Sunny (our other dogs) were playing around us. We had the feeling that Shelley was there and talked about her being our own little star up in Heaven, when suddenly, I saw something in the shallow waves along the shore. It was some sort of broken toy, with a
star
in it! You’d expect to find anything at the beach, but a star while we were talking about it! It was really amazing … and comforting. Little messages from Heaven!

Kim’s note:
Just before this book went to print, she had yet another experience to add….

We have had another amazing sign. It happened while watching a psychic show on television recently. Before the show started, I lit a candle in front of Shelley’s photo. During the show I walked past the candle to get some coffee, when something caught my eye. I just had to look and saw something in the candle that looked like Shelley sitting down [from the side, facing to the left], complete with her large white collar of fur! I extinguished the candle and made a photo of it. Needless to say, I never lit that candle again and I keep it in a safe place next to Shelley’s urn.

Baby Rat

Wendy Reardon, Papal Historian and Author of
The Deaths of the Popes
Massachusetts

B
ABY
R
AT
(
A BEIGE HOODED
) was my first rat, and I had her (and her sister Boo Boo) flown back to America with me when I left England. She and Boo helped me get through a lot of unpleasantness, so they meant a lot to me.

Eventually, Baby Rat died, and I was devastated. I asked her for a sign to tell me she crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Well, the next morning, I got up, bleary-eyed from crying, and made my tea, as usual. Normally, I never look at the tea before I sip it, but I looked and in it the slight foam had formed a
perfect
shaped triangular rat head, with two bubbles perfectly placed for eyes, one perfectly placed bubble for a nose, and perfectly shaped ratty ears.

I didn’t have a camera handy, but I couldn’t believe it. The foam was also the exact color of Baby Rat. My friends and family said I was just looking for something and I saw what I wanted to see, but those bubbles formed a
perfect
ratty head … then it quickly faded away. I have never seen any tangible shape in the form of bubbles in my tea since.

I’m sure Baby was giving me some kind of sign.

God better reinforce His mattresses, is all I have to say, because if He doesn’t … His mattresses, chairs, and couches will be a lot more holy than they were before Baby joined Him….