The best, amazingly, (other than Rudyard Kipling’s maybe, and Kipling is a minor god) is Ogden Nash:
My little pup ten years ago
was arrogant and spry
Her backbone was a bended bow
for arrows in her eye
Her step was proud, her bark was loud,
her nose was in the sky,
But she was ten years younger then,
And so by God, was I.
Small birds on stilts along the beach
rose up with piping cry.
And as they rose beyond her reach
I thought to see her fly.
If natural law refused her wings,
That law she would defy,
for she could do unheard of things
and so, at times, could I.
Ten years ago she split the air
to seize what she could spy;
now she bumps against a chair
betrayed by milky eye!
She seems to pant,
time up, time up
My little dog must die,
And lie in dust with Hector’s pup
So, presently must I.
Wonderful Poem " – Poignantly, beloved Petra is succumbing "betrayed by milky eye!". She manages still to find birds by scent , but will too, be an irreplaceable dog , when she passes
As Libby do aptly said, Amber found her for us!, and now we have Poppy, so we all should be grateful for the times we have with our dogs…
JohnnyUK
Ogden Nash was known for his "light verse," and I can recall him first as a TV gameshow guest. But my mother kept several volumes of his work and I discovered his charm and treasures as I grew older. Here Steve, is one I another share with friends and compadres at times such as this:
“A dog does not live as long as a man and this natural law is the fount of many tears. If boy and puppy might grow to manhood and doghood together, and together grow old, and so in due course die, full many a heartache might be avoided. But the world is not so ordered, and dogs will die and men will weep for them so long as there are dogs and men.”
-Ben Ames Williams
“Old Tantrybogus,” 1920
JR in TorC
JR– great meeting you and NEED YOUR EMAIL.