by Terrasha
Hi everyone. My name is Terrasha and just this past Friday February 13th, 2004 I had to send my pet rat Templeton over the rainbow bridge :-( It was THE most
difficult thing I have ever had to do in my entire life! Before we took her I had been asking God for a sign that this was the "right" thing to do for Templeton. She was
a gift from God as far as I am concerned and I'll tell you my story of how I came about her first and then I will tell you what signs I believe I received from God that
helped me in that final painful decision...I work at a hotel and one night I was doing a room call and I happened by a room where a woman was screaming about a rat
in her room! I thought Yeah right whatever lady...so I went by and did my room call..well on my way back through I thought maybe I should ask this lady if she's for
real or what, so I popped my head in her door and asked her "Is there seriously a rat in here or are you just fooling around?" She said "yes there's a rat in here, it's
white with pink eyes!" So I of course called my manager who in turn called the maintenence guy and they got her out of the room and just dropped her outside of the
room and I was like "oh my god, we can't leave her here she'll die!" So, I emptied a box out and took her home with me. Come to find out the lady was a parole and
probation officer there for training and was the only lady in the whole group so one of her male co-workers decided it'd be funny to buy a rat and put it in her room to
scare her...So I got to keep the rat and we named her Templeton (after the rat on charlotte's web)! That was about 2 years ago! When she was about a year old she
developed a tumor under her one foot! We took her to a vet and they performed surgery on her and removed the tumor and she was fine for about 7 months then we
saw another lump forming...well I was beside myself because the first surgery was very expensive and I didn't have the money to get another surgery done so I tried
my hardest to find someone online to help me. Within a week or so she developed 2 more lumps.I found a lady named Bev online who told me about a homeopathic
combination of 2 different drugs I could give her that should keep the lumps from getting much bigger or possibly shrink them and prolong her life so of course I tried
it. It was working pretty well for a few months and then the lump between her front legs just continued to grow larger and larger so my fiance and I sat down and
discussed what to do. We finally came to the conclusion that Templeton was just too old to try to make her go through surgery again (rats only live approximately 2-3
years, and she was over 2 years old!) We just thought that we had done as much as we possibly could and thought it would be best if we sent her over the bridge.
Well, I asked God to give me a sign that this was the right thing to do and I was just not getting an answer that I wanted. Well, last week I made an appointment with
our vet and on the way there we stopped at a local Cigarette shop to buy a cigar box to bury her in and my fiance went in and picked one out for her. Well, when he
handed it to me and asked me "Is this ok?" I almost started to cry..THIS WAS MY SIGN! On the inside of the cigar box was a paper with a picture of a BRIDGE of
all things! And behind the bridge was a castle! That to me was my sign from God that yes it was her time to go, because my fiance didn't really know about the
rainbow bridge! So we got to the vet and he looked her over and said there wasn't much we could do for her because the lumps were too big and too many that if he
had done surgery he would have to cut her from her chin to her private area and so he thought it best to send her over the bridge! After it was all over and we were
on our way home (crying like crazy) I saw a vision in my head of Jesus holding Templeton in his arms! Of course I thought "Oh Terrasha you're just imagining this in
your head to make yourself feel better" and I thought that I had because this was the most horrible thing I ever had to do in my life...I felt like I murdered her...I might
as well have been the one that gave her the shot myself I felt SO unbelieveably guilty!...But after finding this website (which i think was another of God's signs to me)
and reading the inspirations page and all the other wonderful pages here on this site I believe I made the right choice and even though my heart still aches immensely
and there's an empty spot where her cage used to be, I know God is watching over her and she's at the bridge playing and eating and having a grand old time waiting
for me to get there so we can go on to heaven together! I hope my story will help anyone who has gone through this or is thinking of sending their beloved pet over the
rainbow bridge! I will miss my ratty Templeton for a long time to come and I don't know when if ever this pain will go away because I just miss her so much...But I
take comfort in the fact that she is with God and is waiting for me to come and cross the bridge with her!
I MISS YOU TEMPLETON!! <:3 )~~ I LOVE YOU AND I WILL SEE YOU WHEN I GET THERE! Love, Mommy