Nobody's dog

Please read this poem if you have a dog that is not micro chipped. Please microchip your beloved pet - it doesn’t take long and could save you, and your pet, heartache

 

*****

 

Today is the death day of nobody’s dog

Nothing will mark it but a note in the log

I’m faceless and nameless and no tears will fall

For I know in your world I have no worth at all

 

To you, my sweet someone, I’m a friend and a dear

We ran the wind daily and you held me so near

But the gate was left open – I chanced a walk on my own

I’d have cowered in fear if only I’d known

 

I know how you cried on the night that I strayed

I know how you searched, I know how you prayed

But I went to a pound far far from our home

Where I crouched in despair in my kennel alone

 

I know that you phoned for I heard your dear voice

And I hoped you would hear me so I barked myself hoarse

Although I’m a Lab cross with stockings all white

On their form I’m a Staff cross – the description’s not right

 

So they said I’m not here and I sank to my bed

My kennel cough’s worse and I can’t raise my head

The rescue came yesterday but they hadn’t a place

 

If only you’d come to search for me here

You would have known me at once, you would have sensed I was near

You would have sorted my ills, you would have carried me home

And I promise our God no more would I roam

 

Now my eyes plead for mercy for my seven days are done

And I am waiting with dread for the final vet run

No arms will caress me as they inject me to death

No words will comfort me as I take my last breath

 

When the body man comes, it is fitting I’m found

In a bin bag in the freezer in the depths of the pound

Thrown away like the rubbish - no respect and no shame

Denied even the time to find you again

 

My loyalty and devotion they did cruelly betray

Without microchip or name tag, I am just a dispensable stray

Once waggy-tailed, once proud, beloved and free

Oh Dad look with pain at what mankind’s done to me!

 

(Trudie Jame or Trudie James;

Author’s note:

“For an un-neutered cross breed with his mucus-streaked face”)