If it should be that i grow weak, and pain should keep me from my sleep, then you must do what must be done, for this last battle can't be won. You will be sad, i understand, don't let your grief then stay your hand, for this day more than all the rest, your love for me must stand the test. We've had so many happy years, what is to come can hold no fears, you'd not want me to suffer so, the time has come to let me go. Take me where my need they'll tend, and please stay with me till the end, hold me firm and speak to me, until my eyes no longer see. I know in time that you will see, the kindness that you did for me, although my tail its last has waved, from pain and suffering, i've been saved. Please do not grieve, it must be you, who had this painful thing to do, we've been so close, we two, these years, don't let your heart hold back its tears. - Anonymous -

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"A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground when the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only to be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.

When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wing, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens."

George Vest

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The Power of the Dog

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 passsion and worship fed

By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.

Nevertheless it is hardly fair

To risk your heart to 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 that 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-term 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

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Old Dogs Do Not Die

We have a secret you and I

That no one else shall know.

For who but I can see you lie,

Each night, in fireglow?

And who but I can reach my hand

Before we go to bed,

And feel the living warmth of you

And touch your silken head?

And only I walk woodland paths,

And see ahead of me,

Your small form racing with the wind,

So young again and free.

And only I can see you swim

In every brook I pass.

And when I call, no one but I

Can see the bending grass.

~Author Unknown

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I know your heavy heart is sad,

within your eye a bitter tear.

As you remember all you had

with one you once had held so dear.

This too shall pass, the Proverbs say,

and that old sun will shine again.

Before you know, there'll come a day

when you can smile and tears will end.

I know it hurts right now,

but just hang on.

With time, the day will come

the pain is gone.

If you let it hold you down,

you'll never last.

If you just hang on a while,

the pain will pass.

I know you're feelin' all you've lost,

but just remember all you've gained.

And as your heart is torn and tossed,

a little time will ease the pain.

I know you're feelin' all alone.

The footprints stopped upon the sand.

Remember there is always one

who will be there to lend a hand.

I know it hurts right now,

but just hang on.

With time, the day will come

the pain is gone.

If you let it keep you down,

you'll never last.

If you just hang on a while,

the pain will pass.

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"... For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he

leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, laughing, begging, it matters not where that dog sleeps. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are

roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or

somewhere in the flatness of a pastureland where most

exhilarating cattle graze. It is one to a dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained and nothing lost - if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog.

If you bury him in this spot, he will come to you when you call - come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path and to your side again. And though you may call a dozen living dogs to heel, they shall not growl at him nor resent him coming, for he belongs there.

People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper, people who have never really had a dog. Smile at them, for you shall know something that is hidden from them.

The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master ..."

Anonymous

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