You’re my best friend, a poem to my dog

The grey is spreading around your eyes and muzzle, creeping every day further,

I lovingly call you my racoon now for it circles your eyes.

Eyes that I still can see such adoration in when you look at me,

But only through the murkiness that now seeps into the brown.

You’re still my best friend,

Yet each day I feel like I lose a little more of you.

Your tail doesn’t wag as much as it used to,

Your toys lie mostly abandoned in the corner.

Some days you still have a spring in your step,

Yet its now become more of a shadow of who you used to be.

Its pains me to see you fading.

You can no longer jump on the bed to snuggle,

Something that has been a highlight of my day for over a decade now.

And yet you still rest your head on my lap when I sit on the floor close to you.

Forever wanting to be near me.

You still give me kisses as often as you are able to

You still arrive on time every mealtime, waiting patiently for any scraps that may fall

You still swim with us

But for every swim I can’t help but wonder will this be the last time.

It is agony having to live the happy moments when they are wrapped in such fear.

Becca my dog, you stole a piece of my heart that day when we brought you home,

You’ve kept it safe all these years

But soon, sooner than I know I will be able to accept, you’ll have to leave

And you’ll take that piece with you.

I wouldn’t have it any other way my brown eyed girl.

I will love you forever and you will hold that piece of my heart until the day we meet again.

In a way I’m glad that these new changes have happened so quickly,

Almost overnight it seems.

For I can’t bear the thought to lose you.

And that time is almost upon me.

So I will do the only thing that I can do

I will hold onto you for as long as I can, tell you how much I love you and thank you for always being there for me.

For being the best dog in the world.

And then I will say goodbye.

It will be the hardest day for me, and for my children.

And I worry for how I will be strong for them when I myself am falling apart.

I’m not ready.

Stay a little while longer my girl.