General Chat

O dog of mine! Only God can measure
The distance between us on the scale of life
Between your instinct and your master's soul;
He only understands that strange affinity
By which you see through your master's eye and even die
His death; he knows too that pity for the broken hearted
-His gift to you , who go on loving
Those that no one else can love.
Never poor beast that lies there on the ground,
Has my fooot spurned you with ignorant disdain;
Never with brutal word embittering your love
Has my heart turned from your caressing touch .
But always and ever in you I have honoured
The boundlless goodness of your Lord and mine,-
Just as we honour those the least of all
His creatures,brothers with a closeness
Nature wills.

Ah, poor Fido, when your eyes meet mine
Silence can understand our wordless speech;
When as you lie beside my bed gazing to see
If I am still alive,and when a single changing breath
Wakes you;when, reading sadness in my darkened eyes
You search my forehead for those lines of care,
And gently take between your teeth my offered hand
To chase away my melancholy thoughts;
When like clear mirror, my sorrow or my joy
Bring to your loving eyes anxiety or calm
So that the soul in you is clearly seen
And your love quitte surpasses mere intelligence;
No, you are more than an illusion of a soul,
More than a mocking imitation of humanity,
More than a body responding to my touch,
More than a mere machine of life and love.

No, when the love that lights up in your eyes goes out,
It will come back to life somehow, somewhere in heaven.
That man or beast ,who loves with such a tender sympathy,
Can never die or be extinct for ever.
God shatters for a moment, only to make whole.
For his embrace is wide enough to hold us all
And we will love each other as we loved in life.
What matters souls or instincts in His sight?
Wherever friendship consecrates a loving heart,
Wherever Nature lights the flame of love,
There God will not snuff out his divine spark
Not in the splendour of a night star' blaze
Nor in a humble spaniel's loving gaze.

Alphonse de Lamartine ( "who wrote the above when it was fashionable in scientific circle to argue that dogs and other animals were just 'living machines', without intelligence and without even feelings. Lamartine's poem is an impassioned argument against a theory that alas 'caused immense cruelty" C Celia Haddon-An Illustrated Anthology of Dogs )

Welcome back Rambling Rose LOL
Julia in Derbyshire

I like this one by Kipling. Whenever I have to put on eof my dogs down it seems a fitting tribute :-)

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?

~~~~ to Julia :))

Morning Eldrick :)) That about sums it up lol. Everytime we lost one of our dogs, we said we would not get another...and always did :))

Anna Hempstead Branch wrote:

' If there is no God for thee
Then there is no God for me'

Wherever mine went, I want to go...whether that is 'somewhere' or 'nowhere'.

xx

Tribute. To The Memory of a Dog.
By William Wordsworth



Lie here, without a record of thy worth,
Beneath the covering of the common earth!
It is not from unwillingness to praise,
Or want of love, that here no Stone we raise;
More thou deserv'st; but this man gives to man,
Brother to brother, this is all we can.
Yet they to whom thy virtues made thee dear
Shall find thee through all changes of the year:
This Oak points out thy grave; the silent tree
Will gladly stand a monument of thee.
We grieved for thee, and wished thy end were past;
And willingly have laid thee here at last:
For thou hadst lived till every thing that cheers
In thee had yielded to the weight of years;
Extreme old age had wasted thee away,
And left thee but a glimmering of the day;
Thy ears were deaf, and feeble were thy knees, --
I saw thee stagger in the summer breeze,
Too weak to stand against its sportive breath,
And ready for the gentlest stroke of death.
It came, and we were glad; yet tears were shed;
Both man and woman wept when thou wert dead;
Not only for a thousand thoughts that were,
Old household thoughts, in which thou hadst thy share;
But for some precious boons vouchsafed to thee,
Found scarcely anywhere in like degree!
For love, that comes wherever life and holy sense
Are given by God, in thee was most intense;
A chain of heart, a feeling of the mind,
A tender sympathy, which did thee bind
Not only to us Men, but to thy Kind:
Yea, for thy fellow-brutes in thee we saw
A soul of love, love's intellectual law: --
Hence, if we wept, it was not done in shame;
Our tears from passion and from reason came,
And, therefore, shalt thou be an honored name!

Rose, over the years we have always said, not another dog, but we have always relented. Our present dog had an operation and had to be taken to Birmingham from Derbyshire three/four times, last year to the tune of almost £4000.00. Last week we had another vet's bill for £400. Would we be without her. No way. OH even carried her upstairs to bed one night last week because he could hear her crying downstairs. They are tuely man's best friend, and worth every penny.
Julia in Derbyshire

Awww Julia, as you say worth every penny, they give such unconditional love. We had a 'rescued' dog which we got just before my son was born and when my mum's health was declining. Paddy had had an awful start to life, beaten etc, and was always very quiet and nervy , took a long time to get him to enjoy things and he wouldn't sit close etc. But when my mum died and I was grieving he came and sat by me and put his paw on my leg...let no one tell me that dog did not know, did not have a 'soul' :)) xx

this was written by the actor Jimmy Stewart,



"Beau"
by Jimmy Stewart
He never came to me when I would call
Unless I had a tennis ball,
Or he felt like it,
But mostly he didn't come at all.

When he was young
He never learned to heel
Or sit or stay,
He did things his way.

Discipline was not his bag
But when you were with him things sure didn't drag.
He'd dig up a rosebush just to spite me,
And when I'd grab him, he'd turn and bite me.

He bit lots of folks from day to day,
The delivery boy was his favorite prey.
The gas man wouldn't read our meter,
He said we owned a real man-eater.

He set the house on fire
But the story's long to tell.
Suffice it to say that he survived
And the house survived as well.

On the evening walks, and Gloria took him,
He was always first out the door.
The Old One and I brought up the rear
Because our bones were sore.

He would charge up the street with Mom hanging on,
What a beautiful pair they were!
And if it was still light and the tourists were out,
They created a bit of a stir.

But every once in a while, he would stop in his tracks
And with a frown on his face look around.
It was just to make sure that the Old One was there
And would follow him where he was bound.

We are early-to-bedders at our house--
I guess I'm the first to retire.
And as I'd leave the room he'd look at me
And get up from his place by the fire.

He knew where the tennis balls were upstairs,
And I'd give him one for a while.
He would push it under the bed with his nose
And I'd fish it out with a smile.

And before very long
He'd tire of the ball
And be asleep in his corner
In no time at all.

And there were nights when I'd feel him
Climb upon our bed
And lie between us,
And I'd pat his head.

And there were nights when I'd feel this stare
And I'd wake up and he'd be sitting there
And I reach out my hand and stroke his hair.
And sometimes I'd feel him sigh
and I think I know the reason why.

He would wake up at night
And he would have this fear
Of the dark, of life, of lots of things,
And he'd be glad to have me near.

And now he's dead.
And there are nights when I think I feel him
Climb upon our bed and lie between us,
And I pat his head.

And there are nights when I think
I feel that stare
And I reach out my hand to stroke his hair,
But he's not there.

Oh, how I wish that wasn't so,
I'll always love a dog named Beau.

Rose, would you believe it. Just had a phone call from the vet. Whilst Molly was being treated last week, they took two biopsies, which have come back clear, but she has got a bad attack of dermititis, which may be down to her taking siloxon for the thyroid. So, on Thursday, they are taking her in, to shave her fur off completely, so they can treat her skin. She will have a special bath before they treat the skin, and this will be ongoing for about a month.
She is a black cocker spaniel 71/2 yr old bitch. And it is a b****y good job we love her so much.
Julia in Derbyshire

oh Julia, poor little Molly, hope the bathing will help, miserable for her I am sure.... she is lucky to have you, i was watching a news report yesterday about a dog rescue place in Derby that has so many more dogs coming in due to the recession.
I wish i could have one but it isn't possible at the moment .

Rose xx

Hi antipodes, I was typing as you posted.

It is appalling to read that but by the same token, as a veggie I do have to make the argument that if you are going to eat one kind of animal then ANY animal ( killed humanely ) is or should be acceptable 'meat' .

The French definitely still do, I think the difference in reaction to people eating horse, dog or cat etc is the 'closeness' of those animals to most of us ..ie as pets rather than 'meat source' ...