Poems

[Qyn]

I'm not sure if this belongs in this section, but it is something I copied from this website as I felt it was very relevant to the way we see our dogs. I have been going through our hard drives trying to find Buddy photos and I rediscovered this.

These wondrous creatures are dogs and no matter how well trained, they may, sometimes, simply react as a dog despite the degre of training.

TRUST - A DEADLY DISEASE -- Author Unknown

There is a deadly disease stalking your dog, a hideous, stealthy thing just waiting its chance to steal your beloved friend. It is not a new disease, or one for which there are inoculations. The disease is called "Trust".

You knew before you ever took your puppy home that it could not be trusted. The breeder who provided you with this precious animal warned you, drummed it into your head. Puppies steal off counters, destroy anything expensive, chase cats, take forever to house train, and must never be allowed off lead!!

When the big day finally arrived, heeding the sage advice of the breeder, you escorted your puppy to his new home, properly collared and tagged, the lead held tightly in your hand.

At home the house was "puppy-proofed". Everything of value was stored in the spare bedroom, garbage stowed on top of the refrigerator, cats separated, and a gate placed across the living room to keep at least one part of the house puddle free. All windows and doors had been properly secured, and signs placed in all strategic points reminding all to "Close the door!"

Soon it becomes second nature to make sure the door closes nine tenths of a second after it was opened and that it is really latched. "Don't let the dog out" is your second most verbalized expression. (The first is "No!")

You worry and fuss constantly, terrified that your darling will get out and disaster will surely follow. Your friends comment about who you love most, your family or the dog. You know that to relax your vigil for a moment might lose him to you forever.

And so the weeks and months pass, with your puppy becoming more civilized every day, and the seeds of trust are planted. It seems that each new day brings less destruction, less breakage. Almost before you know it, your gangly, slurpy puppy has turned into an elegant, dignified friend.

Now that he is a more reliable, sedate companion, you take him more places. No longer does he chew the steering wheel when left in the car. And darned if that cake wasn't still on the counter this morning. And, oh yes, wasn't that the cat he was sleeping with so cozily on your pillow last night?

At this point you are beginning to become infected, the disease is spreading its roots deep into your mind.

And then one of your friends suggest obedience classes, and, after a time you even let him run loose from the car into the house when you get home. Why not, he always runs straight to the door, dancing a frenzy of joy and waits to be let in. And, remember he comes every time he is called. You know he is the exception that disproves the rule. (And sometimes late at night, you even let him slip out the front door to go potty and then right back in.)

Years pass- it is hard to remember why you ever worried so much when he was a puppy. He would never think of running out the door left open while you bring in the packages from the car. It would be beneath his dignity to jump out the window of the car while you run into the convenience store. And when you take him for those wonderful long walks at dawn, it only takes one whistle to send him racing back to you in a burst of speed when the walk comes too close to the highway. (He still gets in the garbage, but nobody is perfect!)

This is the time the disease has waited for so patiently. Sometimes it only has to wait a year or two, but often it takes much longer.

He spies the neighbour dog across the street, and suddenly forgets everything he ever knew about not slipping out doors, jumping out windows or coming when called due to traffic. Perhaps it was only a paper fluttering in the breeze, or even just the sheer joy of running...

Stopped in an instant. Stilled forever- Your heart is broken at the sight of his still beautiful body.

The disease is trust. The final outcome, hit by a car.

Every morning my dog bounced around off lead exploring. Every morning for seven years he came back when he was called. He was perfectly obedient, perfectly trustworthy. He died fourteen hours after being hit by a car.

Please do not risk your friend and your heart. Save the trust for things that do not matter.

[Buddy06]

I miss Lacy so much, it is immobilizing. It has been 13 days.....
I got the letter below a few days after she died.



Masters,

I left so fast that I didn’t have time to say good-by and my new Master told me that dogs who get here like I did get to write ( ok I know I can’t write, so he is helping) one letter to their Earthly Masters, we don’t like the term “owners”.

Master, I forgive you if you forgive me, I know you feel like you let me down for you are the Master and it was your job to protect me from the Human world to teach me about streets and cars and to look both ways before I cross. You put up fences and make me walk with a collar and leash. You tried to teach me to sit and stay to come and fetch and for that I thank you. I am a dog, we bark and dig, run and play; we don’t always come when where called. You left the gate open but I was the one who chased the squirrel and we both lost so let’s call it even ok?

I don’t know what happened and my new Master won’t say but I do know that it changed both our lives in the shake of a squirrel’s tail. I do remember soft warm hands laying me softly on cool shady grass with Buddy looking over me and feeling that I was home. My nose was filled with familiar smells and I could hear you calling my name I tried to be a good girl and come but I had on a new collar and a new long leash. I could not see who had the other end of the leash but I knew that I had to go the way it leads.

When I got up I was surrounded by animals of all sorts and sizes, cats, dogs, bunnies, birds, cows and horse every critter I had ever seen. Some of the animals said that you had once been their Masters too and that for reasons none of them seamed to know exactly, they all had ended up here. They all gave me a welcoming sniff and lick then cleared a path to the end of the leash.

My new Master told me I was a good dog for you, he told me that there really aren’t any “bad” dogs that some dogs are just put into bad situations and that it is never the dogs fault. I don’t know what “fault” means so I’m glad that I cant do it. He told me I can stay with him for as long as I need and that someday you will come for me. He took off my leash and collar and asked me to sit under a big shade tree with him for a while. I felt young and strong but in need of a rest, so I sat with him as he softly stroked my head and we wrote you this letter.

Masters, don’t worry about me for his yard is big with a cool brook on one side and a deep wood on the other, there lots of room to run with many friends and my legs feel fresh.


Love
Your Dog, Lacy.

P.S. Please read aloud to Mr. Buddy the Alpha because we dogs can’t read.
Yet!

[Crabtree]

Jennifer. That is one of the most wonderful tributes I've ever read for a beloved pet.
Thank you for sharing it.

[raysmom]

<span style="color: #003300"> Christmas at the Rainbow Bridge </span>

http://www.angelbluemist.com/christmas.html

[dianefbarfield]

This is not specifically about dogs but has been a favorite poem of mine since childhood. I love thinking about our pets as they enter a world that is perfect for them and this says it all:

The Heaven of Animals

POEM VIEWS: 10734





By James L. Dickey

Here they are. The soft eyes open.
If they have lived in a wood
It is a wood.
If they have lived on plains
It is grass rolling
Under their feet forever.

Having no souls, they have come,
Anyway, beyond their knowing.
Their instincts wholly bloom
And they rise.
The soft eyes open.

To match them, the landscape flowers,
Outdoing, desperately
Outdoing what is required:
The richest wood,
The deepest field.

For some of these,
It could not be the place
It is, without blood.
These hunt, as they have done,
But with claws and teeth grown perfect,

More deadly than they can believe.
They stalk more silently,
And crouch on the limbs of trees,
And their descent
Upon the bright backs of their prey

May take years
In a sovereign floating of joy.
And those that are hunted
Know this as their life,
Their reward: to walk

Under such trees in full knowledge
Of what is in glory above them,
And to feel no fear,
But acceptance, compliance.
Fulfilling themselves without pain

At the cycle’s center,
They tremble, they walk
Under the tree,
They fall, they are torn,
They rise, they walk again.

[TED MEYER]

I heard an old man, talkin bout his old dog. And it got me to think. The more i thought about it the more i agreed and i wrote this song in a blink............if my dog can't go to heaven, i don't care if i do.......cause he's got just as much of a right as i do. Don't get me wrong with this song i don't hate society. It's just the way things have worked out for me.......... It's just the way i hope it to be. I'm sorry, i am a lier. There is no old man. No no it's just me. I'm sure there will be opnions, and some won't understand. But i'm sure some will agree................that if my dog can't go to heaven, i don't care if i do. He's got just as much of a right as i do. Don't get me wrong in this song i don't hate society. It's just the way things have worked out for me........... It's just the way i hope it to be.

[lucy82]

Carly's kidneys were a-failing,
Me? I was a-wailing.
She left me in a horrid way,
Goodbye, my doggy, I say.

Carly is forever is my heart,
Nothing can break that apart.
Oh, what can I say?
God, take care of Carly til' I get there,
I pray.

In memory of the most playful dog ever

[Алексей]

I love this, it is not complete but it is fitting:

To the Sea

Farewell to you, unharnessed Ocean!
No longer will you roll at me
Your azure swells in endless motion
Or gleam in tranquil majesty.
A comrade's broken words on leaving,
His hail of parting at the door:
Your chant of luring, chant of grieving
Will murmur in my ears no more.
Oh, homeland of my spirit's choosing!
How often on your banks at large
I wandered mute and dimly musing,
Fraught with a sacred, troubling charge!
How I would love your deep resounding,
The primal chasm's muffled voice,
How in your vesper calm rejoice,
And in your sudden, reckless bounding!
The fisher's lowly canvas slips,
By your capricious favor sheltered,
Undaunted down your breakers' lips:
Yet by your titan romps have weltered
And foundered droves of masted ships.
Alas, Fate thwarted me from weighing
My anchor off the cloddish shore,
Exultantly your realm surveying,
And by your drifting ridges laying
My poet's course forevermore.
You waited, called... I was in irons,
And vainly did my soul rebel,
Becalmed in those uncouth environs
By passion's overpowering spell.
Yet why this sorrow? Toward what fastness
Would now my carefree sails be spread?
To one lone goal in all your vastness
My spirit might have gladly sped.
One lonely cliff, the tomb of glory...

It is by ALEXANDR PUSHKIN

hope this helps!

[blehmannwa]

The old dog barks backward without getting up.
I can remember when he was a pup.
R. Frost

[Алексей]

Originally Posted by blehmannwa

The old dog barks backward without getting up.
I can remember when he was a pup.
R. Frost

haha that's a nice one.