Welcome to the Story ChairDad: The renovations to the story chair took a lot out of me and mom. But wouldn't you know it, just as we finished a small tiny voice called out to me. It said: I has a story. I has a tale of abandonment, love, and redemption.
Dolce: That is so lame.
Dad: That was mean, Dolce. So what should I say to introduce this story?
Dolce: That's easy... Lost, Beloved, Found. To our furriend, Wintergreen...
Dad: You win, Dolce. To our newest furriend, Wintergreen; an Angels of the Rainbow Bridge Story: Caught...
Angels of the Rainbow Bridge: Caught
In a human lap, in a relatively unknown place, a small little kitten snuggled down into the only human lap it had ever known. It closed it`s eyes and laid down with the fullest belly it ever had. A small sigh escaped its little mouth, and with the only sounds to mark it`s passing being the tick of a large clock on a wall and the soft sob of its human rescuer, the little stray kitten slipped peacefully away.
Two Angels appeared in the room and hovered over the still form of the kitten and the human that lovingly cradled its furry body. Antonius was as shocked to see Elbereth as she was to see him. Given their diverging chosen true purposes, they had never met at a scene such as this.
"Elbereth." Antonius was startled to see his beloved angelic sister. "What calls you to the passing of a Lost One?"
Elbereth looked at her angelic brother puzzledly.
"Dearest Antonius." Elbereth replied. "I am here for the passing of a Beloved One."
"I have followed this tiny soul." Antonius explained. "For the last two weeks, I have watched and waited to bring him home and release him from his abandoned existence amongst the humans."
"This human soul." Elbereth pointed to the human woman that sobbed quietly as she held the kitten so that she would not wake her household. "Has claimed this kitten as a Beloved One. I felt the pull to Earth only minutes ago. The Bond has been made."
"I can still see her, Elbereth" Antonius stated. "She is a Lost one; forsaken by humans."
"Her name is..." Elbereth paused as she had trouble sensing the name-bond between the human and the kitten. "Her name is Wintergreen. They also call her Winnie. She is not a Lost One; she is Beloved."
"It is most strange that we were both called to this kitten's passing." Antonius replied. "But I would never deny a creature the eternal love of a human. Please take Wintergreen to the Rainbow Bridge and let her wait for her newfound human companion."
Elbereth nodded her head to her brother, and then she outstretched her hand towards the human.
"I bind thee to thy friend..." Elbereth repeated the vow that she had spoken at every passing of a Beloved Pet.
The void appearred next to the human's heart, but no energy would transfer to the still kitten in her lap. Elbereth sighed and released her binding on the human.
"I am sorry, Antonius." Elbereth said sadly, "The kitten is indeed a Lost one; for the binding would not hold."
"It is I that is truly sorry." Antonius replied as he prepared to release the Lost One's soul from Earth and take it back to Heaven. "She deserved to be loved and to give love in return."
Antonius pulled two feathers from his wings and prepared to bind them onto the still kitten.
As he laid them onto the kitten's body, the two feathers turned grey and disappearred in a puff of faint dust.
"Since I saw your Bonding fail." Antonius stepped away from the human and the kitten. "I would have thought this frail creature was a Lost One; but it repels the angelic wings I would give it to ascend to Heaven."
In what seemed in Angelic terms to be forever, but to a human only a couple of heartbeats; Elbereth decided to try something different. She pulled two feathers from her wings and placed them on the kitten's body. They did not turn ashen and blow away as dust. She pulled a thread from the hem of her robe and she bound the wings, as Antonius always did, to the still form.
"Bear with me brother, my singing voice is not as practised as yours." Elbereth tried to remember the words of Antonius's song as he took each Lost One home.
As she sang the joyous words of love and peace, the two angelic feathers merged with the little kitten frame. As she finished, she noticed that the kitten's spirit has not separated from its earthly husk.
"What did I do wrong?" Elbereth asked Antonius, who wiped a tear from his cheek.
"Nothing." Antonius smiled. "It was perfect. You have tried my gift, let me try yours."
Antonius held out his held towards the human female.
"I bind thee to this creature." Antonius repeated Elbereth's vow, "I take this as a promise of your love and devotion for this creature. I take it it not so that you shall remember her, but so that she remembers you as she waits in a Meadow under the loving gaze of God."
A small blue orb formed out of the void that Elbereth had started to form over the human's heart. It floated to Antonius's hand; much to his and Elbereth's surprise. He held it over the kitten's body. It crackled and sparked and the lifeless angelic wings turned from white to a rainbowish hue that danced happily in the light.
The kitten's spirit separated from it's earthly body. It shone with the faint blue light of a Beloved One, but it bore the wings of a Lost One.
"What do we do know?" Elbereth asked.
"We take her home." Antonius replied with smile as he bent down to pick up the kitten.
Antonius gasped as he hand passed right through the tiny angelic kitten. Elbereth tried and her hands also passed right through the kitten's body.
"It took us both to free her, but now neither of us can take her home to heaven." Elbereth stood dumbfounded.
"You cannot take her home." Another angelic voice sounded from behind the two Angels. This one was was younger and softer.
Antonius and Elbereth turned and saw their Seraphim cousin, Cirrin, standing behind them. He had grown bigger since he had been tasked as a Guardian Angel. His wings were larger and stronger, although still smaller than Elbereth's and Antonius's wings.
"This is now up to me." Cirrin stepped forward. "I have tried to keep this one safe. I even thought that pushing it out in front of that car might give it a fighting chance for a longer life."
He placed one hand on the kitten's body and the other on it's newly freed angelic spirit.
"Wintergreen." Cirrin said softly and sadly. "I am your Guardian Angel. I am here to protect you. And when all else fails, I am to take you Home."
With that, there was a bright flash of light.
Antonius, Elbereth and Cirrin, holding Wintergreen in his arms, suddenly stood at the meadowside edge of the Rainbow Bridge.
Antonius knew what he was supposed to do. He took Wintergreen from Cirrin and for the first time in his entire existence, he walked onto the Rainbow Bridge. As he expected, his sister, Dulcinea, met him at the halfway point.
"This creature cannot cross yet." Dulcinea said."It's Beloved Human has not yet arrived to cross to Heaven with her."
"Dulcinea," Antonius replied. "I have one more burden for you to bear. This kitten is both a Lost One and a Beloved One. Like you, she is caught between the Rainbow Bridge and Heaven. Will you take care of Winnie until her human comes for her?"
Dulcinea reached out her arms and took Winnie into her grasp.
"We shall both wait here." Dulcinea said with a wide smile as she petted a softly purring kitten whose wings fluttered happily. "I will hold this little one as a special trust between me and her human."
There are rumours from Those Who Have Gone Before that there is a tiny kitten that runs and plays on the Rainbow Bridge and greets every human and their friends as they cross into Heaven and that she sleeps lovingly nestled in the embrace of an Angel, as she waits patiently for her own Beloved Human.
The End
Thanks for snuggling with us, come back soon.
