If he wakes in your arms ...

I can hardly see through my tears ...

today I sent my best friend of years and years

somewhere he had to go,

where pain and sickness he won't have to know.

He's been with me ever since he was a pup ...

today I've had to give him up.

He was sick, we both knew it

and I wouldn't put him through it. 

 

Thinking back to the day my wife brought him,

I told her then that I didn't want him ...

"Noise and mess and bills to pay!" -

I can't believe I felt that way.

Didn't know that in the end,

he would be my dearest friend.

Didn't know that he 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 him love me,

with nobody else above me?

When I looked into his eyes,

never did he criticize,

never did he hold a grudge,

never did he try to judge.

 

Recently, an anxious day.

"How come you don't want to play?"

Took him 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 him comfy til he's through.

 

Back at home I tried to tell him

of the bad luck that befell him

All I could see in his eyes

was wondering why his master cries.

I don't think he understood -

his eyes just asked "Wasn't I good?"

"How come now I make you sad?

Let me kiss and hug you, dad!"

 

Two last weeks I had to try

to find a way to say goodbye.

In that time I told him more

than I ever had before

just how much I loved my pup,

how it hurt to give him up.

How though gone, he'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 asked the vet to come 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 boy who was dying,

and I just didn't care if the vet saw me crying.

 

As my pup slipped away, the last things he felt

were the kisses and hugs of his master who knelt

on that "blankie" beside him to bid him goodbye,

who had just one more minute to tell him,

to try to say thanks to his boy for a lifetime of love ...

"Dear God, let me see him in heaven above!

But for now Lord, please hold him, watch over his rest ...

if he wakes in Your arms tell him I love him best."

 

(R. A. S., 1996;

“Please keep this poem in its entirety and attribute it to the author

if you download it and use it in any way. Thank you.”)