Tolkien and the Rainbow Bridge

Miss 9 very often mentions our old boy, Tolkien or Tolly. He was a blue ACD of true working lines and we lost him in 2001, he was 13. He died when he swallowed a part of a corn cob thrown over the fence by a neighbor's child. It caused him to have a perforated intestinal tract, and blockage. Surgery was a risky option as there could be no guarantees that all the tears in the lining would be repaired or picked up. A second opinion gave us the percentages of success and the highly likely scenario that a missed perforation would result in septacemia and death. We decide to let him go. It was the hardest decision ever made and I have always lived with the loss, harder still is the fact that Miss 9 was old enough to understand the loss. Mr 6 was only a baby and Mr 4 ,a distant star in the sky. Miss 9 annually takes Tolkiens photo and some obedience ribbons and trophies to school to show her new teacher and class. She has his picture in her room and will talk about him often. She asks if Gemma misses Tolkien or if she should tell Lawson that Tolkien was the first boy dog in the family. Things such as this come up occasionally, not often, but I choke when I hear his name as she speaks about him with such freedom that I envy her.
Yesterday, she asked if Tolkien was in heaven. I told her I was unsure but that I think animals wait for you to join them in heaven so every one is happy again. She asked where they wait and I remembered a great site that has some great visuals and music complete with the poem by Paul C. Dahm called "The Rainbow Bridge". She watched it with tears steaming down her face, I felt bad but after she told me it was such a nice place that the animals must be happy and not miss their families too much. Maybe it will help her not to worry about him too much now.