{"id":9250,"date":"2026-02-04T21:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=9250"},"modified":"2026-02-04T21:15:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:15:30","slug":"arboretums-rainbow-bridge-aims-to-help-pet-owners-honor-deceased-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/02\/04\/arboretums-rainbow-bridge-aims-to-help-pet-owners-honor-deceased-pets\/","title":{"rendered":"Arboretum’s ‘Rainbow Bridge’ aims to help pet owners honor deceased pets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 A local dog owner’s idea to build a pet memorial bridge for her sick dog was put into action, even after her dog’s recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheyenne Tillery\u2019s 13-year-old dog, Trina, has been suffering from cancer. Recently a complication with her medications had Tillery worried that Trina was not going to survive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like losing a best friend,” Tillery said. “It\u2019s a kind of feeling that you can\u2019t really describe but it\u2019s terrible. And it\u2019s still scary every day; she still has bad days.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the only thing that could bring Tillery comfort was finding a place to memorialize her dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen she first started getting sick, there was a rainbow bridge in North Carolina and they fill it up with collars and it\u2019s for all the dog owners to remember them by,” Tillery said. “And when the big flood happened it took out the bridge, so I was like \u2018well what do I do now?\u2019\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After hearing\u00a0about\u00a0several\u00a0new bridges\u00a0being built\u00a0at Troy University’s Arboretum<\/a>, Tillery requested one\u00a0to be\u00a0designated\u00a0as a rainbow bridge for Trina, who at the time was in bad condition. But unexpectedly, Trina recovered from her complications and the bridge went unused for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe got really sick here recently and when I tell you they came out here with paint brushes and started painting,” TIllery said. “And when we got out of the vet they sent me a picture and I was like \u2018I don\u2019t\u00a0have to put her down\u2019 and they\u00a0said\u00a0\u2018well, the bridge is done!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The bridge didn’t go unused for long though. Clark Harris, the Arboretum volunteer coordinator behind the bridges\u2019 construction, has his own connection to the rainbow bridge.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a wonderful dog, Cyrilla, that was a rescue that lived with us for 15 years,” Harris said. “The other dog that I\u2019ve memorialized was our dog Jet and it\u2019s just nice to think that they\u2019re memorialized in a place that they got to spend some time doing something they thoroughly enjoyed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, Tillery has not had to use the rainbow bridge yet, but she says she is glad it will be here whenever that day comes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAMPUS COVERAGE: Troy University creates nursing rooms for working mothers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say a dog is better than a person but that\u2019s your best friend, you know,” Tillery said. “They\u2019re never mad at you no matter what you do. So, I\u2019m glad I have the option to have a rainbow bridge.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arboretum is currently in the process of clearing out the surrounding meadow area and planting flowers to beautify the space around the bridge. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 A local dog owner’s idea to build a pet memorial bridge for her sick dog was put into action, even after her dog’s recovery.<\/p>\n

Cheyenne Tillery\u2019s 13-year-old dog, Trina, has been suffering from cancer. Recently a complication with her medications had Tillery worried that Trina was not going to survive. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like losing a best friend,” Tillery said. “It\u2019s a…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[956,2797,2793,2796,2795,2791,1784,2792],"topics":[17],"class_list":["post-9250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-arboretum","tag-arboretum-pet-memorial","tag-arboretum-rainbow-bridge","tag-pet-memorial","tag-rainbow-bridge","tag-troy-arboretum","tag-troy-university-arboretum","tag-troy-university-rainbow-bridge","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9313,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions\/9313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}