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
With Much Love,
| Clara Bella |
| 1, June 2009 |
| Barbara Butler |