Website Helps Heal Hearts
Rainbows Bridge (rainbowsbridge.com) was invented by Ginny Brancato and it has brought many pet owners together supporting one another, offering a haven.
‘Guardians’ otherwise known as those tending to their pet’s memorial online at the site send money to the U.S. Humane Society and have many uplifting stories to tell one another. The pets memorialized online are known as ‘furbabies.’
“We have gotten a lot of email from the donations from the ‘guardians’ regarding what people can do to help the Katrina ‘furbabies,'” said Brancato whose organization recently donated to the cause. “There are a lot of good, happy stories.”
When Brancato lost her cat Fifi she had for 14 years she tried to find something like Rainbows Bridge online but couldn’t.
“I’m such a visual person,” she said. “That was where the idea came to create it. It became a happy time because the same newspaper I went to to see about putting her obit in wound up doing a story on our site four years later. We’ve come a long way with people realizing that these animals are not just animals, they’re our children. In many cases ‘guardians’ who don’t have children – these are our babies.”
Brancato said with a Higher Power’s help, feeling like the site was blessed, her invention was born. She started getting numerous emails thanking her for the creation.
“I thanked God and made a vow that whatever we got in at the end of the month after paying the bills would be donated to a shelter,” she said. “Every little bit that someone can give to a shelter really helps.”
Brancato said Rainbows Bridge, formed in 1997, is the only site of its kind.
“I believe it is a healing site that was meant from God,” she said. “I get letters and emails all the time. The other day I got a letter from an 80-year-old man who said he and his 75-year-old wife who wrote to me for advice were going to go to a rescue place and get an older dog after his had passed away. He wrote me back the most wonderful letter saying that they got a Chihuahua they rescued who’s 11. They live to be 15-16. The couple was so grateful.”
Brancato said the site has gone through lots of changes and they have over 4,000 ‘furbabies’ that make Rainbows Bridge their home.
“To them it’s a home,” she said. “There’s many of these people who are able to go back and visit their ‘baby’ online and it is a living memorial. It brings comfort knowing you can go back as many times as you want, change the photos, and at Christmas people leave a virtual tree at their pet’s memorial.”
Brancato is branching out into people memories now. For the last three years she has been asked to have a human Rainbow’s Bridge which will be going up in a month at the site.
“We’ve been programming it for two years,” she said. “I think when people pass on they want their animal with them on the site. I see through the stories what I’ve always said in my life – the storms will come and after the storm the sun shines again. I think there’s no coincidence in life. Everything has a reason.”
Music has also been added to the site and a Monday candlelight memorial is a new addition after users requested it.
“I listen to the people,” said Brancato. “I get hundreds of emails. I answer every one. Rainbows Bridge is a living poem. We’ve had people come up to the chat room with volunteers. They are the angels – people helping one another. It’s unbelievable, the network. They network with each other. All over the world these people come to us.”
A support group also meets on the site and is a very strong collaboration, said Brancato
“God is working through the site. It’s almost like it took a living form,” she said. “That’s the most beautiful thing. There’s people that care. That’s what the beauty of the website is. No one can give love like an animal.”
