This was a little book I put together about my dog, Bronco, years ago. Bronco was the smartest dog. He really understood what people said when they spoke to him. He liked to get in the cars, just to go to sleep. He was hard to remove from a vehicle and we had to remember to keep the doors closed.

He loved to go for rides. From the back seat he liked to put his front paws up on the middle console. I told him, “look at your feet.” He did just that.

When he first played with a ball he tried to catch it with his front paws. He stopped and stared at his paws in disbelief. He couldn’t believe they weren’t hands. After that he often sat near the oven so he could see himself reflected in the glass.

Bronco lived to be ten years old. He passed away during surgery to remove a tumor.

When Bronco passed away I could not accept it. It was unbelievable and I felt I couldn’t stand it. I sat on the edge of a seat and leaned toward the armrest. It was too hard to bear. My head was spinning. And then I was on a hilltop where beautiful lawns grew and there were flowers and large rocks and trees and off in the distance were valleys and other hills. There were people and I didn’t recognize them at first, they were all so young. There were three women standing by a large rock and I realized they were my Grandma Frances, Aunt Marie and my Little Grandma, Milda and with them was my handsome boy, Bronco!

Grandma Milda said, “Go to her.”

Oh that silly boy just ran around in circles with a big doggy smile on his face and I could see he was happy and safe. The feeling was that I should not be there and I didn’t try to move or speak, but looking around I saw my Grandfather Ed and my father-in-law, Quincy, who both barely kept from smiling and waving. I saw my brother, Louis sitting on a rock, he looked like I was not supposed to be there.

I looked back at my grandmothers but they also seem like they didn’t think I should be there. I was disappointed that Bronco didn’t come to me, but thinking back on that event, I think he couldn’t see me. Then I was sitting where I had started out. I felt like I had been given a tremendous gift, to know that my dog was happy and ok. And now I know that there is another life after this one and that dogs and all animals, do go to Heaven.