As a fur parent, I am triggered by the question: "Where do pets go when they die?"

I lost a feline pet two years ago — one of five back in March 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Two hours after bringing him to a vet, I was calling Cavite-based "Pet Valley" — a pet funeral service provider. "Sooming" was picked up from the vet clinic and brought 23 kilometers away for cremation.

The next 24-hour wait at home was an ordeal. For emotional reasons, I did not dare look at the funeral service photos sent by the staff. My kids, obviously more courageous than me, said my favorite "Sooming" was swarmed with flowers while waiting to be cremated. He was treated the way I hoped to be — with care and dignity.

A day after, I was holding his boxed ashes, neatly packaged with his photo plus some memorabilia (his paw print among them).

My kids and I said goodbye to a devoted family member who had been by our side for a little more than a year. Like all other furry pets, he crossed over the "rainbow bridge".

The child in me asks, "Where exactly is the Rainbow Bridge?" I have read about it hundreds of times. If it's a matter of coping with my grief, then so be it, there is a Rainbow Bridge.

To quote a poem by an unknown author: "Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge… There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable… All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by."

Blogger Kendra shared an autobiography book titled "Little Britches." A father tells a boy growing up on a Colorado ranch that we only have to be sad about creatures who die without having fulfilled their purpose. Our departed pets, who were loved, taken care of, and given love and companionship, certainly had a purposeful life.

A best-selling author and award-winning journalist, Dr. Paul Thigpen, wrote: "… great Christian thinkers such as C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) have debated this issue and left the possibility open. St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) taught that animal "souls" could not by their nature survive death. Unlike human souls, he said, they are perishable when separated from their proper bodies.

I take comfort in what Dr. Thigpen said. Even so, perhaps that leaves open the possibility that God might choose to keep at least some animal "souls" from perishing after death, granting them a privilege beyond their natural capacity."

"What other reasons could there be? It just might be that God would allow the animals we've loved on earth to take part somehow in our heavenly life as part of our eternal happiness. In fact, since God himself takes delight in all the good creatures He has made, perhaps He would give animals some sort of life in heaven for the sake of His own pleasure and glory."

He went on to say: "As Lewis pointed out, even in this life our pets sometimes become an important part of our lives, almost an extension of who we are. Their association with us elevates them to a higher kind of life than they would have had on their own."

The debate continues. Rainbow Bridge, Heaven, or anywhere, with or without immortality, the special bond of fur parents with their pets is incomparable, even much stronger than we can fathom.

But I will certainly carry Sooming and ten other feline friends with me in my heart wherever I am destined to go after life.

For now, I will keep his memory, along with other departed loved ones, alive and forever.