A love story

I wasn’t going to do another blog this week. However in light of my poem yesterday, I got a tweet from a friend of mine on Twitter. She’s a lady by the name of Kristin Boes, also known as @catladyfurever. This lady rescued a 10 year old beagle originally called Edna and quickly re-named Daisy. Her story was published in a local magazine and can be found here –

https://petceteracolumbus.com/domesticated .

I read the story and admit that it really got to me, as a rescue dog myself. Daisy wasn’t looked after well, it seems, in her life prior to arriving at the rescue centre and to meeting Kristin and her husband. Once Daisy had adopted them, her life was full of happiness, compassion and understanding. And hugs. Plenty of hugs and kisses. Daisy went to the Rainbow Bridge on 27th February 2019. However she went with the knowledge that the last years of her life showed her what it is like to be loved and cared for in an environment where accidents aren’t punished and love is given freely. The following poem written by Kristin, deserves a read, I think.

I spent the first ten years of life

Trapped inside a cage

Then wound up at a shelter

Unwanted for my age

I spent my days in loneliness

Confusion and in doubt

Wondering if there’d ever be

Someone to let me out

But then one day a lady came

And saw beyond the grey

And ever since that moment

Every day’s been my best day

I don’t know how to be a dog

I couldn’t if I tried

I don’t know how to play with toys

I sometimes pee inside.

No one taught me any tricks

I’m not so great with leashes

But there’s one thing I’m amazing at

I love my mom to pieces.

When mommy comes home every day

From where she went without me

It’s better than a million treats!

I love her so devoutly.

She could have picked a little pup

A cuter one, or bolder

But mommy tells me all the time

She loves that I am older.

My usual state is sleepy

I like to take long naps

My favourite place in all the world

Is on or near a lap.

I don’t claw up the furniture

Or chew on peoples clothes

And everyday I’m thankful

That I’m the one she chose.

I may not be the perfect dog

Though I try and do my best

My first ten years were terrible

But she saved all the rest.

Some lines in the poem resonate with me. I want to pick out a couple.

“She could have picked a little pup“. How many people look through rescue websites and scan over the older dogs but are immediately attracted to a puppy or juvenile which is probably going to be as much of a handful as an older fur.

“I don’t know how to be a dog“. For someone to look at a sentient creature and wonder that they don’t know how to be a dog, must have been so utterly challenging and demoralising for both Kristin and Daisy. How can a dog not know “how” to be a dog, how to play with toys, how to interact? What life did poor Daisy have before she adopted her humans. That last part is the bit I don’t want to know.

This is Daisy. I think you need only look at her face to see what she thought of her, sadly too few, years in a loving home.

• 

• 

As for the line in the poem, “I may not be the perfect dog“. I shall leave that to your own thoughts. Daisy looks happy to have had a chance to live out her last years in comfort with love and affection. Daisy was perfect in Kristin’s eyes, I am sure.

Just one last thing to say. Daisy waited for Kristin to come home from work before going on her longest journey. Sometimes love is so all encompassing, that it’s scary.