These calendars with Sally Babcock's unique and expressive artwork
will benefit Airedale Rescue all year long.
Click on either picture to view & purchase.

A good dog never dies
she always stays
she walks beside you
on crisp autumn days
when frost is on the fields
and winter's drawing near
her head is within our hand
in her old way.
-- Mary Carolyn Davies

VIOLET - SUMMER 1987

Violet was our first Airedale, adopted on 6 December 1986. She passed away on 3 December 1987. Violet had been sent to the local Humane Society, supposedly by a dog kennel that was closing and didn't want her; she was judged to be about seven years old. After we adopted her, she was found to have heartworm, and we cured her of that. She died of skin cancer almost a year later, and I still mourn her.

TO FLUSH, MY DOG

Loving friend, the gift of one
Who her own true faith has run
   Through thy lower nature,
Be my benediction said
With my hand upon thy head
   Gentle fellow-creature!

Yet, my pretty, sportive friend,
Little is 't to such an end
   That I praise thy rareness;
Other dogs may be thy peers
Haply in these dropping ears
   And this glossy fairness.

But of thee  it shall be said,
This dog watched beside a bed
   Day and night unweary,
Watched within a curtained room
Where no sunbeam brake the gloom
   Round the sick and dreary.

Roses, gathered for a vase,
In that chamber died apace,
   Beam and breeze resigning;
This dog only, waited on,
Knowing that when light is gone
   Love remains for shining.

Therefore to this dog will I,
Tenderly not scornfully,
Render praise and favor.

-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1844

Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of Man, without his vices. This praise, which would be unmeaning flattery if inscribed over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the memory of Boatswain, a dog.

-- Lord Byron, Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog, 1808

VIOLET PORTRAIT BY BOB ANDERSON My boss & friend, Bob Anderson, is an artist and cartoonist. He drew this portrait of Violet for me for my birthday. Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really. -- Agnes Sligh Turnbull

©1988 R. Anderson. All rights reserved. Used with permission

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumor, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find -- it's your own affair --
But . . . you've given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone - wherever it goes - for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long --
So why in Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

-- Rudyard Kipling, The Power of the Dog

Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out, and your dog would go in.

-- Mark Twain

That would be a low-grade sort of Heaven,
And I'd never regret a damned sin
If I rush up to the gates white and pearly,
And they don't let my Malamute in.

- Pat O'Cotter, A Malamute Dog

Do dogs go to heaven?
With no dogs, would heaven be heaven for dog lovers?

- Canidlover

Ten years ago she split the air
To seize what she could spy;
Tonight she bumps against a chair,
Betrayed by milky eye.
She seems to pant, Time up, time up!
My little dog must die.
And lie in dust with Hector's pup;
So, presently, must I.

-- Ogden Nash, For A Good Dog

The old dog barks backward without getting up.
I can remember when she was a pup.

-- Robert Frost, The Span of Life

Dogs die too soon -- that's why we had kids.

-- Tim Allen, Home Improvement

Is a dog's life so short because
its love is so intense,
or is a dog's love so intense because
its life is so short?

-- Anonymous, from CANINE-L

The poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend.

-- Lord Byron, Epitaph for His Dog, Boatswain

We who choose to surround
      ourselves with lives more
      temporary than our own
      live within a fragile circle,
      easily and often breached.

      Unable to accept its awful
      gaps, we still would live no
      other way.
      We cherish memory as the
      only certain immortality,
      never fully understanding
      the necessary pain . . .

-- Unkown, from CANINE LIST-L

I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?

-- Sir Walter Scott

dogs have joined Misha (@RB), April (@RB), Cari & Rico on the couch since 16 AUGUST 1996. We hope you all were comfy!!

 INTRODUCING MISHA (@RB), APRIL (@RB), CARI & RICO

Remember to bring along your virtual pooper-scooper!