I found this poem and thought it was beautiful. I cried many tears over this and I took some hair from Snookie and have it in a locket. I will treasure having her hair when she passes to the Rainbow Bridge.
Ann



"OLD DOG IN A LOCKET"

Old dog in a locket,
That lays next to my heart;
I will always love you,
As I did right from the start.

You were right beside me,
Through the darkest of my days;
It was your kind and gentle nature,
That made me want to stay.

Now I hold you in my arms,
Your breath still warm against my hand;
Our hearts still beat together,
And I wonder if you understand.

Through the hours that I held you,
Before the light did leave your soul;
I knew a way to keep you,
Forever in my hold.

I snipped the hair from around your eyes,
So I would always see;
The beauty that surrounds me,
Even in times of need.

I snipped the hair from around your ears,
So I would always hear;
Music in the distance,
To quiet any fears.

I snipped the hair from across your back,
To bring me strength in time of need;
And the power of your essence,
Would always be with me.

I snipped the hair from around your heart,
That beat in time with mine;
So I would know that love would find me,
At some distant time.

And so, your life slipped out of mine,
On a quiet Spring-like day;
But I knew that a part of you,
Was always here to stay.

Old dog in a locket,
That lays next to my heart;
I will always love you,
Even though we had to part.

AUTHOR--Heidi Stamm (Bainbridge Island, WA

I love that poem, Ann.
Marcia

I love that poem too, Thanks Ann.

Here's another story I came across on the net today, it's a true story. It wasn't on a pet loos site, it was on an unrelated site, I think it was a talk show message board, talking about animal rights or someting. It leapt out at me. I don't know where else to post it so I'll put it here if that's ok. It brought me some comfort...

In 1999 I had to put to sleep a 13-year-old Golden Retriever with degenerative hip disease. One month later I was out front of my home in Cambria, California with my new 8-week-old puppy. A young girl, approximately 11 years old and younger brother came walking up the road that winds behind the back of my house. The girl desperately wanted to hold the puppy and I allowed her to. She looked down at the front of my house and asked me if I would let my other dog out. I told I had no other dog. She gave me a puzzled look then got distracted by the puppy for a while. Soon she asked again, "Why don't you let your other dog out?" I repeated that I had no other dog and that's when she insisted that she and her brother had just seen the dog looking out of my living room window at them. She described perfectly the 13-year-old Retriever that I had put to sleep one month prior. She had an all white face and the girl said that the dog looked like she was smiling at them. I recalled that the two children had been laughing when they walked up the road. The little girl told me they were giggling at the white faced, laughing dog looking at them from out the window.

I asked her if she'd been to Cambria before. I thought we were having a communication problem and that perhaps she had seen my now deceased Golden Retriever (Hannah) some weeks before. She told me that they were visiting their Grandmother for the first time and this was their first day ever in Cambria.

Some Christians believe that animals have no souls. I don't know exactly what that little girl and her little brother saw, I don't pretend to understand the mysteries of the universe, but whatever they saw it was very real to them. The people who shunned you that night were wrong, in my opinion. And they were wrong in a most profound sense of the word.

About three years later the little girl came past my house again while out on a walk with her grandmother. My Golden Retriever that she had met when she was only 8 weeks old was now around 3 years old. The little girl remembered their first meeting and while she played with my dog I decided to ask her if she remembered seeing the other dog in my living room window, the laughing dog with the white face. She remembered. When I told her that the dog she saw had been deceased for a month and that I had bought the puppy after putting the other dog to sleep I thought she might fall over. She said to me, "But I saw a dog. I saw a real dog."

What a beautiful poem. The night I had Shiloh put down, I clipped some of the hair from her back. I don't keep it in a locket next to my heart, but that's a great idea.

Thanks for sharing.
Kathleen