Reply #55: for josh [View All]

[xchrom]

Tribute To A Best Friend

Sunlight streams through window pane
unto a spot on the floor....
then I remember,
it's where you used to lie,
but now you are no more.
Our feet walk down a hall of carpet,
and muted echoes sound....
then I remember,
It's where your paws would joyously abound.
A voice is heard along the road,  
and up beyond the hill,
then I remember it can't be yours....
your golden voice is still.
But I'll take that vacant spot of floor
and empty muted hall
and lay them with the absent voice
and unused dish along the wall.
I'll wrap these treasured memorials
in a blanket of my love
and keep them for my best friend
until we meet above.

Author Unknown

Dear God, protect and bless all beings that breathe, keep all evil from them, and let them sleep in peace. Amen.
--Albert Schweitzer, "Memoirs of Childhood and Youth"

Prayer for Animal Burial
Eternal Spirit, we bring you our grief in the loss of Josh and ask for courage to bear it. We bring you our thanks for who lived among us and gave us freely of his love. We commit our friend and companion Josh into your loving hands. Give us eyes to see how your love embraces all creatures and every living thing speaks to us of your love. Amen.

ONE MAN'S SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO A DOG

The one absolutely unselfish friend that
a man can have in this selfish world,
the one that never deserts him,
the one that never proves ungrateful
or treacherous, is his dog.

A man's dog stands by him in prosperity
and in poverty,
in health and in sickness.
He will sleep on the cold ground where
the wintery winds blow,
and the snow drives fiercely,
if only he may be near his master's
side. He will kiss the hand that has no
food to offer, he will lick the sores
and wounds that come in encounter 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 wings and reputation
falls to pieces, he is as constant in
his love as the sun in it's journey
through the heavens.
If misfortune drives the master forth
an outcast in the world, friendless
and homeless, the faithful dog asks
no higher privilege than that of
accompanying him to guard against
danger, to fight against his enemies.

And when the last scene of all comes,
and death takes the master in it's
embrace, and his body is laid away in
the cold ground, no matter if all other
friends pursue their way, there by the
graveside will the noble dog be found,
his head between his paws, his eyes sad,
but open in alert watchfulness,
faithful and true, even in death.


-From a speech given by
Former Senator George Graham Vest
of Missouri. Delivered in 1870 when he
was acting as a lawyer in a suit against
a man who had killed the dog of his
client. -- He won the case.


************************
and finally from lord byron

MONUMENT TO A DOG
When some proud son of man returns to
earth, Unknown to glory, but upheld by
birth, The sculptor's art exhausts the
pomp of woe, And storied urns record who
rests below. When all is done, upon the
tomb is seen, Not what he was, but what
he should have been.
But the poor dog, in life the firmest
friend, The first to welcome, foremost
to defend, Whose honest heart is still
his master's own, Who labors, fights,
lives, breathes for him alone,
Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth
-- While man, vain insect! hopes to be
forgiven, And claims himself a sole
exclusive heaven.
Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debased by slavery, or corrupt
by power--
Who knows thee well must quit thee with
disgust, Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all
a cheat, Thy smiles hypocrisy, thy
words deceit!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name,
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush
for shame. Ye, who perchance behold this
simple urn, Pass on--it honors none you
wish to mourn. To mark a friend's remains
these stones arise;
I never knew but one--and here he lies.
--- Lord Byron ---
Inscription on the monument of his
Newfoundland dog, 1808


i know how you feel about josh -- i loved my old boy sport more than i can ever say -- and i miss him every day.

his ashes i buried with my dad --

sport was my very heart.

you loved josh just as you should have -- and may all the blessings there are, were or ever will be fall gently on you for that --
because you already know -- we can't love them as much they love us.