The Rainbow Bridge

If it should be I grow frail and weak
And pain prevents my peaceful sleep.
Then you must do what must be done
When this last battle can't be won.

You will be sad, I understand.
Selfishness might stay your hand.
But on this day, more than the rest,
Your love and friendship take the test.

We've had so many happy years
That what's to come can hold no fears.
You'd not want me to suffer. So,
When the time comes, please let me go.

Take me where my needs they'll tend.
Only -- stay with me until the end.
Hold me firm and speak to me.
Until my eyes no longer see.

I know, in time, you, too, will see
It is a kindness that you do for me.
Although my tail it's last has waved,
From pain and suffering I've been saved.

Do not grieve it should be you.
Who must decide this thing to do.
We've been so close, we two, these years......
Don't let your heart hold any tears.

"The Housecat's Grave"

I've changed my ways a little, I can no longer
roam with you in the evenings along the shore,
except in a kind of dream, and you, if you dream a little you see me there.
So leave a while the paw marks on the front door,
Where I used to scratch to come in or go out,
and you'd soon answer, leave on the kitchen floor the marks of my drinking pan.

I cannot lie by your fire all evening
On the warm stone, nor yet at the foot of your bed
no, all the night through,I lie alone.
But your kind thought has laid me less than 6 feet
outside your window, where firelight so often plays,
and where you sit to read, and, I fear, often grieving for me--
every night your lamplight lies on my place.

You, Man and Woman, live so long,
it is hard to think of you ever dying!
A little cat would get tired, living so long.
I hope that when you are lying
under the ground like me, your lives will appear
as good and joyful as mine. No, dears, that's too much hope...
you have not been as well cared for as I have been,
and never knew the passionate, undivided fidelities I knew.
Your minds are perhaps too active, too many sided, but to me you were true.
You were never Masters, but Friends. I was your Friend.
Deep love endures to the end and long past the end...
If this is my end, I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.

"Four Feet in Heaven"

Your favorite chair is vacant now,
No eager purrs to greet me,
No softly padded paws to run,
Ecstatically to meet me,

No coaxing rubs, no plaintive cry,
Will say it's time for feeding --
I've put away your bowl,
And all the things you won't be needing,

But I will miss you little friend,
For I could never measure,
The happiness you brought to me,
The comfort and the pleasure,

And since God put you here to share,
In earthly joy and sorrow,
I'm sure there will be a place for you,
In Heaven's bright tomorrow!