A memorial garden at a Dartmouth animal shelter has a new addition to help owners honour their beloved pets.
A rainbow bridge.
Photo: Bide Awhile
Sam Cole the communications and marketing coordinator at Bide Awhile tells our newsroom it connects to Trio’s Place – a space of comfort where owners can grieve pets that have passed.
“We just unveiled it at our open house on Saturday, but it’s been a work in progress for the past couple months,” says Cole.
Trio’s Place
Trio’s Place is the memorial garden at Bide Awhile that was created in 2012 in honour of a three-legged cat.
Photo: Bide Awhile
Cole says, she “ruled the roost” for 23 years.
“She came in, she started pulling on heartstrings and pretty soon Bide Awhile became her permanent home,” adds Cole.
Cole says 23 years is a very long life for a cat and when she passed, the garden was created in honour of her and everyone in the community who has lost someone they loved.
“It does see some visitors who come to take a moment to remember their pets, walk through the garden looking at the plaques or the plants that are in honour of past pets or loved ones,” says Cole.
Where did the bridge idea come from?
The idea for the rainbow bridge came from their executive director who saw a social media post from a shelter in the United States.
They would memorialize pets by hanging collars and name tags on the railings of the bridge.
“We saw it, thought it was an absolutely fantastic idea and realized there was nothing really around the city or Nova Scotia that offered this,” says Cole.
Cole adds, they got in touch with their grounds committee and the ball got rolling from there.
She says it was a “community project of love” and people have really loved it.
“We’ve seen a lot of teary-eyed people. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t all have kind of a good cry over it as well.”
