GameFam: Best...Dog...Ever

This is the post I've been dreading since late July. And though I've thought about what to write over the last 2 and a half months, I'm going to let others speak for me today. The following poems brought me a small measure of comfort. I found them here.

I lost a special friend today

the kind you can't replace,
and looking at her empty bed
I still can see her face.

I see the endless energy
the sparkling puppy eyes,
Not the tired, fragile friend
I had to bid goodbye.

I know she's in a special place
our Lord has for such friends,
Where meadows, fields & flowers
help make them strong and whole again.

--excerpt from "Special Friend" by Christina L. Tronnes

... should the Great Master see fit to deprive me of my health or sight, do not turn me away from you. Rather hold me gently in your arms as skilled hands grant me the merciful boon of eternal rest...and I will leave you knowing with the last breath I drew, my fate was ever safest in your hands.

--excerpt from "A Dog's Prayer" by Beth Norman Harris

Please, understand just what this gift,

You're giving, means to me,
It gives me back the strength I've lost,
And all my dignity.

Cut the leash that holds me here,
Dear friend, and let me run,
Once more a strong and steady dog,
My pain and struggle done.

--excerpt from "From Friend to Friend" by Karen Clouston

If it should be that I grow frail and weak
And pain should keep me from my sleep,
Then will you do what must be done,
For this -- the last battle -- can't be won.

When the time comes, please, let me go.
Take me to where to my needs they'll tend,
Only, stay with me till the end
And hold me firm and speak to me
Until my eyes no longer see.

I know in time you will agree
It is a kindness you do to me.
Although my tail its last has waved,
From pain and suffering I have been saved.

Don't grieve that it must be you
Who has to decide this thing to do;
We've been so close -- we two -- these years,
Don't let your heart hold any tears.

--excerpt from "The Last Battle" by Unknown

There's a hole in my heart where a dog used to be.
He's nuzzled my soul and is now part of me.
His pain is his life and I know what to do.
But when I release him, I'm losing me, too.

The puppy I cradled three short years ago
is a ninety pound bundle of love and I know
that he'd lick away all of my tears if he could.
It's his sense of duty to make me feel good.

It's my obligation to do what is best.
The love of his "master" is put to the test.
It's a wrenching and sorrowful way that we part;
it doesn't hurt less when the head rules the heart.

There's a hole in my heart where my Jake has passed through.
When we say goodbye part of me will go too.

-- "Losing Jake" by Amy Waggoner