A Good Dog

I thought of you today
When happenstance brought me
To that road we last walked
And to the memory of your last breaths,
How I held your sweet, warm head
In my hands and whispered to you
Trying desperately to comfort you,
Willing myself to believe
You would be all right,
Willing you to know how much
You were loved, how much
Joy you brought to the lives
Of my children, to us all

I thought of you, today, buried
Under your beloved pear tree
And how you now nourish it
As it had once nourished you,
And I missed your playfulness
And the laughs you gave us
Missed the wonderful silliness
Of your sprightly, unfettered life
And yet the depth you brought
To my own, and I knew
I had been blessed

And I remembered my tears
Falling onto your limp ears then,
And how I prayed you had felt them,
Because in feeling them
You would have understood with certainty
The value of your life,
Believed without hesitation your worth,
Known beyond any doubt
That you had been a good dog

*Sadie was killed during a walk on a country road with her family. We could see nothing, as she had run a bit ahead of us; we heard only a screech, a thud and the squealing tires as the driver sped away from the scene. We found her lying by the side of the road as we ran over a hill to her side, in shock and not believing what had just happened. Though Sadie died in 1992, she returns to our thoughts again and again. She was a blessing to our family, and a very good dog who will always be missed.