Duty

My grandfather who lived well into his 90's, wrote a fair amount of poetry in his last two decades. Some of it made you cringe in embarrassment, but more than a few were pretty darned good.  Grandpa grew up on a farm near Sacred Heart, Minnesota.  More than 70 years after the event, he wrote about losing his first dog circa 1912.  With so many people losing their dogs lately, I thought of this poem.  I still cry when I read this one.  :'-)

DUTY
*********
For many years I had a dog
I was then but a boy -
A little dog, not very bright
But loyal to the core.

One day her health began to fail
And daily she grew worse.
Her suffering ever on my mind -
No vet -  her ailment was a bitter curse.

I had to face what must be done
Her suffering soon must end.
It could be left to no one else
This ordeal I alone must tend.

I took my gun down off the rack.
She saw, and gathering all her waning
    strength once more
Off to hunt we went
As we had so many times before.

I raised my gun and took good aim.
Her sad eyes full of trust,
I did the only thing I could,
The thing I knew I must.

From time to time through all the years
The hurt comes back in full.
For as a boy I'd loved a dog
Who loved me in return.

Henry L. Jacobson

[have 2 kids]

**reaching for the box of tissues**

[Jaybay]

Ain't it the truth?  :-)  In an odd way, it comforts me to know that even though methods have changed in a hundred years, the emotion involved in euthanizing a dog has not.  That last verse gets my eyes squirting every time...

[suzi-q]

Jaybay....my eyes are welling with tears...it brings so much back....

I guess losing our best pals has caused the same pain long ago and will continue in the future...the circle of life.

[Jaybay]

"circle of life".  Yes, that's it exactly.  :-)