Dog Community

A Message From Max

Posted : 7/2/2006 1:15:55 PM

I am helping my cousin search for a cocker spaniel and I found this poem at one of the rescue websites. I think is so pretty.

A Message From Max

(Author: J.D.Ellis 2001)

My name is Max and I have a little something I'd like to whisper in your ear. I know you humans lead busy lives. Some have to work, some have children to raise. It always seems like you are running here and there, often much too late, often never noticing the truly grand things in life.

Look down at me now, while you sit there at your computer. See the way my dark brown eyes look at yours? They are lightly cloudy now, that comes with age. The gray hairs are beginning to ring my soft muzzle. You smile at me; I see love in your eyes. What do you see in mine?

Do you see a spirit, a soul inside who loves you as no other could in the world? A spirit that would forgive all trespasses of prior wrong doing for just a simple moment of your time?

That is all I ask. To slow down if even for a few minutes to be with me. So many times you have been saddened by the words you read on that screen, of others of my kind, passing. Sometimes we die young and oh so quickly, sometimes so suddenly it wrenches your heart out of your throat.

Sometimes we age so slowly before your eyes that you do not even seem to know, until the very end, when we look at you with grizzled muzzles and cataract clouded eyes. Still the love is always there, even when we take that long sleep, to run free in distant lands.

I may not be here tomorrow; I may not be here next week. Someday you will shed the waters from your eyes that humans have when deep grief fills their souls, and you will be angry at yourself that you did not have just "One more day" with me.

Because I love you so, your sorrow touches my spirit and grieves me. We have now, together. So come, sit down here next to me on the floor. And look deep into my eyes. What do you see? If you look hard and deep enough we will talk, you and I, heart to heart. Come to me not as "alpha;" or as a "trainer;" or even a "Mom or Dad," come to me as a living soul and stroke my fur and let us look deep into one another's eyes, and talk. I may tell you something about the fun of chasing a tennis ball, or I may tell you something profound about myself or even life in general. You decided to have me in your life (I hope) because you wanted a soul to share just such things with.

Someone very different from you, and here I am. I am a dog, but I am alive. I feel emotion, I feel physical senses, and I can revel in the differences of our spirits and souls. I do not think of you as a "Dog on two feet;" I know what you are. You are human, in all your quirkiness, and I love you.

Now, come sit with me, on the floor. Enter my world, and let time slow down if even for only 15 minutes. Look deep in my eyes, and whisper to my ears. Speak with your heart, with your joy and I will know your true self. We may not have tomorrow, and life is oh so very short.

Love, Max (on behalf of all canines everywhere)

thedoc617

Posted : 7/2/2006 9:19:48 PM

wow. just wow. It really puts life into perspecitve.

(goes to give Daisy a hug)

tacran

Posted : 7/2/2006 11:48:22 PM

So come, sit down here next to me on the floor. And look deep into my eyes. What do you see? If you look hard and deep enough we will talk, you and I, heart to heart.

The whole essay is wonderfully profound . . . written by someone who deeply loves (or loved) a dog. This particular passage really touches me. How many thousands of times during Tonka's life (and even more once we knew his time with us was coming to an end) did he and I sit facing each other, and I would hold his head in my hands and look in his eyes just like that. Usually he would hold my gaze for a long time. I would talk to him as long as he'd remain still, telling him how he blessed my life, how I loved him, and how important he was to me. All the while, I could rub his ears and feel his huge head in my hands. Those are the moments I miss more than anything now. His eyes had an expression in them that touched my soul.

Thank you for sharing that -- I will definitely be printing that to save in my collection. I'll never understand people who don't take the time to relate to their pets that way - who just feed them and give them a half-hearted pat once in a while. The connection to another living being who shares your life should be much deeper than just providing basic needs (in my opinon, anyway!).

whatsh0uldmyl0ginbe?

Posted : 7/3/2006 12:13:10 AM

wow..that poem made me cry..it reminded me of my Princess who has left a hole in my heart...im hopeing Maisie can help me cope..she was such an amazing dog
that poem is so touching

olinda

Posted : 7/3/2006 8:07:51 PM

My pleasure to share something that beautiful.

You know, I am 39 yrs old and from a very early age I have had to deal with a lot. At 8 yrs, I was diagnosed with grade IV brain cancer, at 9 yrs old I lost my maternal grandmother with whom I had a connection like no other, at 10 yrs I survived an earthquake, at 12 yrs a civil war, my husband passed away, lost a friend to AIDS and all of these things have taught me how to be more compassionate and caring toward others, how not to take life, anyone or anything for granted.

A friend of mine nicknamed me Mary Poppins, because if I feel like hugging, kissing you and saying I love you, I just do it; because there is nothing that I like more than to going to a baseball game with my father or play chess with him, rub my mom's leg or back when she is in so much pain. Or just plain spending an afternoon, just laughing, dancing (I learned how to slow dance with my father and he got me into ballroom dancing) and listening to them talk about when they were young. I don't like for people to give me material gifts, I always say: give me time, give me memories. I am about the corniest person, you will ever meet and I am not ashamed of it. Life is too precious and short to be worried about putting up barriers, and protecting feelings. Like the saying goes "is better to have loved then to have not loved at all".

This is why, every day with Romeo is a blessing, is a memory that I will always carry in my heart, and will help me get through the day when he is no longer with me. Is funny, I do seat down with Romeo and look at him and talk to him and tell him how much I love him, how he has blessed my life, how because of him I no longer feel lonely, and how much I hope he feels all the love that I have for him. It is a ritual that I have had since he came to live with me, every evening as we settle down, I play Nat King Cole, Romeo gets comfy in his bed and we have a heart to heart, is the perfect way to ending what sometimes are very long, hard, difficult days.

I am a person full of faults, have made my share of mistakes, but I hope that I have in a way enriched the life of all of those who have known me. And you are right, I have never understood people who don't take the time for themselves, family or pets, it makes me sad they will never know how amazing that connection can be. [

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