Devon ODay - Goodbye, My Friend

Glue to Board Goodbye my sweet friend.
Thise is the hardest thing I will ever do...Granting you peace and deliverance
Is my Last gift to you This Book Belongs to: It is a Gift From: Goodbye My Friend CELEBRATING THE MEMORY OF A PET DEVON ODAY Author of My Angles Wear Fur SONGS BYKIM McLEAN
RUTLEDGE HILL PRESS
Nashville, Tennessee
A Division of Thomas Nelson Publishers
www.ThomasNelson.com Copyright 2006 by Devon ODay.
Music copyright All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Rutledge Hill Press, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee 37214. Rutledge Hill Press books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4016-0313-7
ISBN-10: 1-4016-0313-0 Printed in the United States of America 06 07 08 09 105 4 3 2 1 Too many times,
We miss the point. It is in the simple love of a good friend,
We find success, happiness, and joy. We must always give thanks for
the furry angels that have blessed our lives,For it is through their SACRIFICE DEVOTION, and LOYALTY ... We learn to be better people. Feel everything you must.
Let the pain be as big as it is. Let the memories pour like a summer rain and make rivers in your soul. For as we return to those rivers, Againand againand again, We will begin to see the divine reason we were chosen. We will realize how deeply weve been blessed.

It is in those rivers, we will learn the lessons our humble teachers came to us to share. This book is for all those
who have been greatly touched and left
forever changed by an animal angel. How do I say goodbye to my best friend? Youve always been so faithful. Ive always needed so much. Youve never given less than your all. I want to give you that back.
If money would buy you more time,
Id gladly be a pauper to get
even a day more.

But that would be for me...
not you. This is how I will remember you... Sitting in the bay window,
begging to go out and chase the birds
from the feeders on the sill.
You thought me a sadist for saying no.
So close, and yet so far were those birds. Yes,
this is how I will
remember you. You never met a kid you didnt like, or a coyote you did. Wholl sing bass when the train goes by? Wholl make me feel safe when I go for walks at night? I think Im the only one who truly knows your bark
has always offered more to fear than your bite.

Unless of course, you were a dog biscuit or a piece of country ham. Ill miss you, Old Man. I wish you pastures of goats
to tend till I get there. They dont give you
a day off when you lose
A family member who
just happens to have fur. I cant understand that. I could have taken a day when my uncle died, And I didnt even like him.

You were my precious angel. You were my guardian. You were my caretaker. Doesnt the world know how much you meant to me? I have always understood more than you realized. I knew what the doctor said. I knew why you cried.

I knew it was love that let me go. I was a blessed creature.
To have come to this earth to be your pet
was a gift that I have only now begun to realize. Your home was the best place I could have spent my earthly years. Time with you was the best time I could have had. You are just my favorite person... It was a year to the day.A year... come and gone. From the moment you left me, It was springtime again.
And there in the place where
you now sleep forever,
A place where no flowers
have ever been planted,
Were two tulips sprung up
from the ground.
One for me, one for you.
A visitation I think. We got her on the day we met.
She was the symbol of our love. She was there when our children were born. She was there when you lost your job, And gave you purpose every day till you found one again.
She was there when we argued, and somehow brought humor and the glue that healed us. She was there when I couldnt dream anymore, And reassured me until my dreams returned.
She was there when the kids had nightmares. She was there when the storms raged. She was there when we moved into the big house, And there when we moved out.
On this day,
She is no longer with us.
And we will never be the same. And the man climbed the hill
to the tree where he used to sit with her.
He caried her full weight up the steep hill.
He had to.
This is where he knew she needed to spend eternity.
It had to be him... alone.
No one could share this task.
It was his last kind act for a love so precious.
It was hard.
He struggled with every scoop of earth.
He lifted her body onto her favorite quilt.
He wrapped her gently, snugly, for sleep.
He surrounded her with dog biscuits,
her tennis balls, and her favorite toys.
Then he wept as he covered her forever.
He didnt care how loud he got.
He cried out so heaven would feel his pain.
He cried out so heaven would open its gates for her.
At the end of the ritual,
He sat near her as the sun set.
He was quiet.
He said goodbye and walked back down the hill, Alone.