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14 February 1999 Issue

Two Poems: Dog Tails

by Jill Gillono

For Brownie
I know life could have been better
for you if I had just thought quicker
on my feet. At least if we had spayed you
no more lives would have been affected,
but sometimes life is like that...
A day late and a dollar short..
But maybe I have learned from this experience,
and it will carry over to the next creature I
see in need.
And I just pray the education I tried to instill
in the least intrusive way will reach some ignorant
minds and maybe unearth deeply buried compassion
in naive hearts. Or maybe, dear Brownie, you are the
one ray of sunshine in an abused adolescent girl's
tumultuous world..
I will never forget you...

The following is dedicated to Harley "AKA Scott"
at West Suburban Humane Society in Downers Grove, IL

My big pawed golden boy why does life have to be so unfair?

The end came so suddenly there was no time to prepare.

I thought a happy foreverafter was just so near
until that day I received the urgent message
I wasn't prepared to hear.

At the first quiver of her lip I knew,
but I was so confused as to why
it had to turn out this way for you...

Now, every time I view a wide open field I see you
...in my mind's eye...
loping so freely through the woods,
with Lindsey and Brownie at your side
or basking in the warm rays of the sun,
and I wonder
if I would have done this again??
if I would have given you that final ride??

From the first moment you ran up to me at camp
I thought I knew what fate was to be dealt...

This was not supposed to happen:
not how it was supposed to be...
if society just had common sense
and treated all creatures with respect and dignity...
no creature deserves to end their life
due to this kind of neglect.

I can't help but wonder why you were brought into my life
and why I felt obligated to give you my heart.
I rescued you from a cold, neglected life
and gave you a brand new start,
but you took a part of me with you when you left.
i wish I could have held you
as you took your last breath.

My sweet boy, if I could have just foreseen
what the future held for us
I wonder if I would have still
felt the same joy
(as I did when I told everyone your initial success story).

As I hold and comfort poor abandoned Lindsey (your sad mama),
and I still wonder whether Brownie's fate was the same...
poor dog lost in the cold (cruel world)...

I cannot accept the fact that this was so preventable,
and those mean people were so untrue
as they lied through their tears
and said
they had loved and cared for you.

You showed unconditional love
as any kind dog will
at the hands of those enemies
as they stroked you on that last fateful day at camp
and they said they were so sad to see you go,
now as I wonder why your days had to be so few...
It haunts me still.

I pray the warmth, kindness and love you experienced these last few weeks
helped erase the cruel heartless neglect you received
before our lives both changed that fateful day.

In your short, sweet life you affected so many
and asked for nothing much
except love and a kind touch.

Harley, you will always be my "Golden Boy"
and with every summer sunset and walk in the forest
I will remember you.
In my heart you romp and play
through the sundappled forest and cool streams
and brilliant fields of wildflowers, too.
Yes, I do believe if given the choice
I would do it all again...
for you...

I will never forget my "Harley Dog,"
and I will be forever changed
because of your having touched my life.
You are forever in my heart
even though we are now apart.

May you find peace in death over the Rainbow Bridge.

Written by Jill Gillono... with memories of Brownie and Harley "Scott", who I
rescued while on vacation at a campground in College Corner, Ohio last
summer, August 1998... They were abandoned and living in the woods, but
the previous owners stole Brownie away from me. I was able to rescue Harley
and Lyndsey with assistance from my friends at West Suburban Humane
Society in Downers Grove, IL. Two weeks later they were both adopted, but
Lyndsey was abandoned and then adopted by some people who became
friends of mine, while Harley was discovered to have incurable Distemper
and had to be euthanized a day before he was scheduled to move to his new
home... less than a mile from me... Why? Why?? Why???

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