[waterhill]

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie —
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find — it’s your own affair —
But . . . you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit hat answered your every mood
Is gone — wherever it goes — for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we’ve kept’em, the more do we grieve;

For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long —
So why in — Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

~Rudyard Kipling

[OregonRancher]

We just lost our Jake. 14 years of faith and fidelity.

When tomorrow starts without me

Don’t think we’re far apart,

For every time you think of me

I’m right here inside your heart.

[Ditter]

I was going to post that poem, thanks for doing it for me. It is a tear jerker, I could not have finished typing without having a big cry.

[Salamander]

I keep putting my head up to that gun and I always will.

Grief and sorrow are the price for perfect love but it’s still a good bargain.

I don’t know *how* to live without a dog.

The very idea of that is simply impossible.

Living with dogs is who I am.

I fear death much less than being “too old to have a dog, anymore”.