From: K9 Companion Dog Training
September 3, 2018 at 8:06 PM
Old dogs don’t die; they can’t.
They’ve merely run up ahead; they’re waiting for us just out of sight. Close your eyes late at night and you may smell his musky odor, or perhaps hear his snuffle from the next room. Pay attention and you may feel his nose on your hand or the back of your calf. When your final day comes, you can go on to meet him; he’s never left you and never will, and when you close your eyes for the last time, you’ll open them again to be met with his Bright eyes and wagging tail.
Old dogs don’t die, at least, not those dogs who take the biggest chunks of our hearts with them when they leave us. Those dogs are inextricably part of our souls, and they go with us wherever we are. Though we may not see them, we know they’re there because our heart is still beating; we still breathe, and those of us who have been truly touched by a good dog know our lives really started the day we met them.
Magnificent dogs don’t die. They shepherd our dreams and only allow the good ones through the gates of our consciousness. They watch over us much as they did in life, and that moment when we step just barely outside of death or disaster, it’s because they moved our feet or they stopped short in front of us as they did in life.
You see, a good dog is something only given to a few people. They are a gift from the universe and, though they’re with us only a short time, they never really leave us. They are loyalty and love perfected, and once we are graced with that sort of love we can never lose it. We merely lose sight of it for a time, and that is our fault; for how can love like that ever go away?
It can’t. It can’t, and it never will. For these brave souls trade their hearts for ours, and they beat together beyond sickness, beyond death. They are ours, and we are theirs, for every sunrise and every sunset, until the sun blazes its last and we once again join the stars.
By Leigh Hester,
K9 Companion Dog Training
Port Jervis, NY
Hi! I wrote this several years ago. It has since provided me great comfort after the loss of a magnificent (and not quite old enough, honestly) canine companion. Thank you for sharing my words and I hope they provide comfort to anyone who needs them.
You are welcome. I am sure that they will. Thank you for allowing us to share.
I have sent your phone to many of our friends who have lost their dogs. I had found solace in your poem when we lost our dogs. Thank you.
I’m in my 80s now, so I’ve got a small pack waiting for me. Spot was my 1st dog. Unfortunately he caught one of the cars he usually just barked at. I our mid-70s we decided that we weren’t up to losing another one. That lasted about 6 years. We went to a kennel just to look. She was great sales dog at only 8 lbs. She’s 33 lbs now and I expect she’ll out last us. Even old life is better with a sweet, loving dog.