Author: David, Anita & D.J. Phillips

Clara Bella by Barbara Butler / Barbara

Posted on by David, Anita & D.J. Phillips

I can hardly see through my tears…
today I sent my best friend of years
Somewhere she had to go,
where pain and sickness
she won’t have to know.
Although she hasn’t been with me
since she was a pup…
in the three short years I had her
today I knew that I’ve had
to give her up.
She was sick, we both knew it and
I didn’t want to put her through it.

Thinking back to the day
I bought her, I sometimes
thought oh boy, did I do the right thing,
“Noise and mess and bills to pay!” –
I can’t believe I felt that way.
Didn’t know that in the end,
she would be my dearest friend.
Didn’t know that she would be
the greatest gift that came to me.

How did one like me deserve
a friend who wanted just to serve?
What was there that made her love me,
with nobody else above me?
When I looked into her eyes,
never did she criticize,
never did she hold a grudge,
never did she try to judge.

Recently, on an anxious day.
“My little girl didn’t want to play?”
Took her to the vet to see
what might be wrong with my “puppy”.
Worse by far than I expected,
fatal illness was detected.
Nothing much that we could do
but keep her comfy til she’s through.

Back at home I tried to tell her
of the bad luck that befell her
All I could see in her eyes
was wondering why her master cries.
I don’t think she understood –
her eyes just asked “Wasn’t I good?”
“How come now I make you sad?
Let me kiss and hug you and
make you glad!”

Two last weeks I had to try
to find a way to say goodbye.
In that time I told her more
than I ever had before
just how much I loved my pup,
how much it hurt to give her up.
How though gone, she’d always be
inside my heart, a part of me.

Then today was no mistaking,
I made the decision, my heart was breaking.
I called and told the vet
I would be by –
I didn’t have to tell him why.
He arrived in awhile and asked
“Are you ready?” I sighed,
I nodded, I felt so unsteady.
Got down on the floor by my girl
who was dying, and
I just didn’t care
if the vet saw me crying.

As my pup slipped away, the last things she felt were the kisses and hugs of her master who knelt
On that “blankie” beside her to bid her goodbye, who had just one more minute to tell her, to try
to say thanks to my girl for a lifetime of love…. “Dear God, let me see her in heaven above!

But for now Lord, please hold her, watch over her rest… if she wakes in Your arms tell her I love her best.

Dedicated to my Clara Bella

 

Sam by David, Anita & D.J. Phillips / Mommy

Posted on by David, Anita & D.J. Phillips

Our Sam came to us as a kitten who was rescued from a State Correctional Facility. The inmates were not allowed to have cats so “Killer” as he was called by them, was kicked outside by the prison guards to fend for himself at only six weeks of age. My husband worked at the prison in an area called Center Gate and he became quite fond of this little black cat.

We had just lost our twenty year old Siamese cat, Abbey to kidney failure a month before and we were devastated. We decided that we would go and get “Killer” and bring him home to live with us and our other Siamese, Eleanor and Black Lab, Shadow. Oh, he was no “Killer”. He was the kindest, gentlest little guy you’d ever want to know. My uncle, whose name was Sam used to die his hair black and that’s what this little guy’s fur looked like to me….so very, very black and shiny. We named him Sam. I would have to say that as hardened as those inmates were in this maximum security facility, they treated Sam very well. He was already litter trained….how did that happen? The prison always kept some cats in the Commissary for “mouse patrol”, so the inmates stole kitty litter and put it in a shoebox for him. They could have stolen cat food for him, but no…not for “Killer”….they stole tuna! Sam loved his tuna and tuna “juice”!

I should also note that our Sam was quite the “escape artist”. Did the inmates teach him that trick, too?? He escaped out the sliding glass door of our home twice. He was running with a bunch of feline thugs. He was quickly caught with the help of a little raw meat.

He loved his raw, red meat which he got only on very special occasions. Too much of a good thing can be bad. A month after getting Sam, Eleanor, age 19 passed away. So, now it was just Sam and Shadow – both black. They became fast friends – eating together, playing together and sleeping together. Sam would often curl up between Shadow’s big paws and fall asleep.

Seven years ago, Shadow developed bone cancer and was put to sleep. Sam mourned as all animals do. Three months later, a check of the SPCA’s website brought us to another black cat – Molly, age nine months. We had to have her. Sam was once again a happy little guy.

On Wednesday, April 18, 2007, at the age of 16 years, we were told by our vet that our little guy, Sam had stomach cancer…he never weighed more than ten or eleven pounds. Now he only weighed seven pounds. It was eating him alive. No, not for our Sam. No suffering! So, after the gentle hands of our vet gave him a shot to make him sleepy, he turned his face to mine and gently planted two butterfly kisses on my face. That will always be my memory of this beautiful, gentle, little soul. Till we meet at the Rainbow Bridge…Godspeed, Sam! Love you much.