A Memorial for Bandit

This is a poem I wrote for my husband, in his words. If you are a dog lover, prepare for tears. It is sad!

I can hardly see through my tears... today I sent my best friend of years and years somewhere he had to go,

Where pain and sickness he won't have to know.

He's been with me ever since he was a pup...

Today I've had to give him up.

He was sick, we both knew it

And I wouldn't put him through it.

Thinking back to the day my wife brought him,

I told her then that I didn't want him...

"Barking and mess and "No he won't sleep with us!" -I can't believe I felt that way.

Didn't know that in the end he would be my dearest friend.

Didn't know that the joy of a great gift was about to begin.

How did someone like me deserve a friend who only wanted to serve?

What was there that made him love me, with nobody else above me?

When I looked into his eyes, never did he criticize.

He sometimes judged and held a grudge, hiding under the house all day.

But he was loyal through and through, that was something I could always say.

Recently, an anxious day, "How come you don't want to play?"

I took him to the vet and thought he would be alright.

But worse than I expected, fatal illness was detected.

Nothing we could do but keep him ocmfortable through the night.

I brought him home to spend some time before he had to go.

His friends came over to say goodbye, he had touched their lives also.

He chased some squirrels, but with labored breath, then laid down on the grass.

He didn't know this one last run would be his very last.

The day had come, much to our dismay,

That he would have to go away.

When we started out to the vet, it seemed like time stood still but also went far too fast.

As always, Bandit was the perfect gentleman taking his orders with loyalty right to the very end.

He obeyed his master one last time and took his demise with ease.

I will miss you my little friend, with your cold wet nose and playful bark.

You are "One of a kind" as anyone who ever met you knows.

Nothing can ever replace you cause you've marked your place in my heart.

But now your time on earth has come to a close.

Rest in peace by little buddy!