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| This isn't Ramsey- he was in the early 1990's (think pre-phone cameras), but this dog looks exactly like him. |
My April poetry focus is "Dog Days." I'm trying to write thirty poems, all centered around dogs. Today is #7, about Ramsey, a golden retriever/chow I inherited from my sister. He was the first dog I owned as an adult.
"Sweet Ramsey"
Ok, I admit
I wasn't planning on a dog
but my sister moved to Arizona
and said I could have her almost new hot tub
if I would take you, her partner's four-year-old
Golden Retriever/Chow mix.
You hated the heat
and she thought you would be miserable in Phoenix
and so you moved into my house
and into my heart
that first week when a workman came
you escaped through the open gate
the electrician and I searched for an hour
and I was thinking maybe my time
as a dog owner had been short-lived
when we hard a bark at the back gate,
you came home and didn't leave my side
for the next eleven years
it was you and me,
me and you
you were my family,
my dinner companion,
my favorite walking partner,
my ever vigilant bodyguard
my best friend
the last sound before I went to sleep
was your gentle huff, the exhale
as you settled on the floor next to the bed
it only made sense, then
when you could no longer mount the stairs,
that I would sleep on the couch in the family
for over a year
you had not left my side
and I would not leave yours
(C) Carol Wilcox
It sounds like Ramsey won your heart.
ReplyDeleteThis says it all,
"it only made sense, then
when you could no longer mount the stairs,
that I would sleep on the couch in the family
for over a year."
Of course you slept on the couch to stay near your dog. The opening story of how he joined you as your dog doesn't make it sound like this is going to be a match made in heaven, but of course it is.
ReplyDeleteOf course you did.
ReplyDelete