Helping Our Pets Cross the Rainbow Bridge at Home

Happy New Year to our wonderful supporters and donors!  This is not a solicitation, nor a fundraising drive, nor a plea for matching funds donations….

Rather, this is a great big virtual hug and a giant THANK YOU for all your support during 2018 for Sugar's Gift.  We were more successful this year than any other, thanks to your generosity and kindness….and belief in our mission.  2019 will be another break-out year, so stay tuned!

As always, to those of you and others who lost their Little Angels in 2018 (or before), remember when you are sad:

1. They live in your heart forever.  That thump, thump, thump that you have deep in your heart sometimes is just our babies’ tails wagging hard, telling us they are still with us.  You may feel sad, anxious, tearful, and that thumping gets extra loud.  But they are right there with us, telling us they love us, and they will always be there for us, just as we were always there for them.
2. Look at pictures you have taken of your Little Angels.  It can seem painful sometimes, but the tears we shed are also happy tears to see their bright, shining faces once again.  We can remember good times, how much seeing those tails wagging when we walked in the door brightened up the whole day and how much those kisses in the morning, through the day and at night meant to us.  And, yes, we wish we could feel those again.  But we will.
3. Think of them now, at the Rainbow Bridge with all of the other Little Angels, waiting for that special person – YOU – while they play again, healthy, happy, running and jumping.  But, yes, they are sad, too, because they miss you so much.  But they are waiting for you.
4. Don’t dwell on the sad times at the end of their lives when they were not themselves any longer. Instead, know that you did everything you could to help them and keep them healthy for as long as you could. If you feel you kept them around just a little too long, think of it like this:  As much as your baby loved you, he or she knew that you also needed to have their Rainbow Crossing stretched out a little bit since you weren’t ready for them to go yet.  They knew that.  They loved you no matter what.
5. Last, we all second guess ourselves and say, “Did I do the right thing?”  Let me reassure you and tell you that YES – you did the right thing.  Please don’t live your life thinking that you should have waited…maybe this is just a “glitch” and she’ll come around….what if she isn’t as bad as I think….etc. None of wants to think that our babies have a journey to the Bridge.  That is the hardest part of having a Little Angel.  You did the right thing.  Your baby relied on you to make those decisions for him or her, and they trusted you to the end of their life.  You knew it was time.  So, Yes, you did the right thing.

To all of you, go hug those babies of yours and give them one extra one from us!  Have a wonderful, safe, peaceful, prosperous 2019….and we’ll talk with you next year!

Woof Woof!

Links:

• Our Website
• How To Help Our Angels

Hello Wonderful Donors!  This is not an email to bug those of you who have generously contributed to our success during 2018.  We thank each and every one of you, as always, with all our hearts.   

This is simply a reminder to each of you who still need tax deductible contributions before the end of the year, that Giving Tuesday with GlobalGiving is most likely Sugar’s GIft™’s last opportunity before the year end for matching funds in a fundraising drive.  For Giving Tuesday, GlobalGiving has approximately $150,000 in matching funds available to the non-profit partners who raise funds that day.  In case you don’t know the date, for this year Giving Tuesday is tomorrow, November 27, 2018 (that was facetious because you are no doubt being inundated with pleas for help).   

We also want to give you our latest report for Little Angels whom we have helped Cross the Rainbow Bridge from Home – we couldn’t have helped them without you and your donations.  Remember that 100% of your donations go toward helping our Angels.  We still send our thoughts to these pet owners, even those pet owners whom we have helped starting in 2016, hoping you are dealing with your grief in your own way.  No one can tell you how, or for how long, to grieve.  

As we always do, we like to state our mission here and the reasons you wonderful donors have given your hard-earned money to us.:

Sugar’s GIft™’s mission is to provide hospice, euthanasia and end-of-life veterinary services for terminally ill pets in their own homes.  This allows them a comfortable, peaceful setting, where they have lived and been loved, to cross over the Rainbow Bridge with dignity.  Our services overcome conditions that could be due to the pet’s inability to be moved or treated at a facility, or due to the owner’s inability to leave the home.   We also help those Little Angels whose pet owners can afford veterinary care but prefer to donate to an organization that can help their babies cross the Rainbow Bridge from home with comfort, dignity and peace.

Our 10-year old Yorkie, Sugar, passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2013. We made sure she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge from home with comfort, dignity and peace. Sugar’s gift to your Little Angel is to allow them the same privilege: Sugar is helping them cross over the Rainbow Bridge from home, with the help from others who have donated funds to make that happen. Every Little Angel should be able to spend their last moments in the place they are most comfortable – at home.

Sugar’s Gift™ is the only non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization in the country whose mission is to help terminally ill pets cross over the Rainbow Bridge from home with comfort, dignity and peace.

We have helped several Angels recently and each has been so special to us.  

First was Sue’s Savannah, a Ridgeback/Shepherd mix.  Tragically for Sue, she lost her Isabel only a couple of months earlier after a routine visit to her vet for shots.  Sue needs extra hugs, and, fortunately, she still has Ellie at home to comfort her, as well as 2 kitties. Dr. Robin helped Savannah cross the Rainbow Bridge from home.  Thank you, Dr. Robin – you are wonderful!  One extra special thing that came out of us helping Savannah and Sue is Sue’s friendship with Nikki.  Sue is also the creator of Sugar’s GIft™’s new logo!  She is also on our Board of Directors and is our (our favorite title) Goddess of Creation.

Penny needed Sugar's Gift™'s help crossing the Rainbow Bridge from home, as her mom Janet and Janet’s grandchildren Hannah and CJ witnessed the decline in her health.  Penny was an Angel Janet had with her late husband Bill, so it was especially difficult to lose sweet Penny.  We are fortunate Dr. Robin was able to help Penny.  Nikki met with Penny’s family recently, and they told stories of Penny’s youth and is was wonderful celebrating her life.  Penny was almost 19 years old and had a wonderful life.

The most recent Rainbow Crossing was for Abby’s girl, Lucy.  Abby had tried many things to help prolong Lucy’s life after a diagnosis of cancer earlier in 2018.  But that darned old cancer wouldn’t be stopped, and it is so tragic.  Lucy was the sweetest big baby girl.  Dr. Carmen helped us with Lucy’s crossing and Nikki went as well, as Abby is a close friend, following their conversations when Abby first found Sugar’s GIft™.  Abby is an angel to us – she is helping Nikki with her speech and cognition and if we had found her when Nikki first had her TBI, Nikki would be much farther along – that is Abby’s work, a speech pathologist, and a darned good one, we must say.

And, Sugar's Gift™ was contacted by Jeannisse to help with Gage’s aftercare.  We weren’t able help Gage cross the Bridge, but Jeannisse did find us when she needed help with his private cremation.  We were honored to help, and Gage is now back home with his Mom and his brother.

We have another family we are working with who will most likely be in our next report to you – unfortunately, their baby needs our help, but fortunately we are here to help when they need us.

So, we’ve been busy using your generous donations. As you know, our goal is to help one pet per day cross over the Rainbow Bridge with comfort, dignity and peace. It costs us approximately $1,000 to help one pet.  By the end of 2020, we hope to be not only in the Sarasota/Bradenton region, but in all of Florida. Then, by the end of year 2022, we want to be nationwide. We have already received requests from San Francisco, Indiana, Washington DC, Atlanta, New York, Kansas City, Austin, TX, Indiana, Miami and the Florida Panhandle to rollout to their cities as we can, which we hope to do starting in 2019 and 2020.  We have already helped people in Northern Florida and other areas of the country upon request.

And, don’t forget to contact us about Pet Trusts! We can help in several ways.  Your Angels need to be included in your estate planning….

Thank you, again, for your support for Sugar's GIft™ - but, more importantly, thank you for helping all the Little Angels who really need your funding to help them cross the Rainbow Bridge from home with comfort, dignity and peace.  Again, please feel free to share our information with your family and friends, or anyone who loves their babies as much as we do.

For your convenience, you can copy and paste this link to share our GlobalGiving website with others: 

 https://goto.gg/24357

Until We Meet Again…..™

Links:

• Our Website
• Meet Our Board Members
• Meet Our Vet Partners