Dog Friends -

I remember green grass, purple clover, big buzzing bumblebees, and blue sky,
Giant cottonwood trees, leaves blowing in the wind, towering and swaying, patiently up high.
With my first dog friend, she was tolerant, nurturing, a female big great dane,
I was a young blonde haired blue eyed 1 year old boy, and I cant remember her name.

But I can still see, and I can imagine clearly, like we are still there together,
She watched over me, as I learned and I played in the yard, she was my dog protector.
I remembered that we talked in our own way, as we spent the summertime with each other,
Forehead to forehead, my teacher, my loyal canine mentor, she was my dog mother.

I have learned through my life, thinking back, I have always had a dog friend and protector,
Scrounge, Chance, D.O.G., Otter and Gracie, have always been my life friends and harms deflector.
My girls grew up with their own dog friend Abby, from a safeway cardboard box full of pups,
Her name was Abby, fuzzy orange, purple tongue, a classic chow protector full of growls and yups.

Abby watched over my girls, because they were also her own, as they were her pups,
She was their sister, then mother, seven years to their one, she grew up with and answered to their yups.
One day when Emily was 3 years old, and decided to walk off exploring to the back slough,
Through the corn field Abby brought her back, by leading her home to our valley echoing yelling cue.

That day as always Abby knew what to do, and if not for Abby that day, I dont know what I would do,
Things would have been different, and I would have not even been able, to have written this to you.
I think about all of my dog friends, how they have been there for me in my life, as the days flow and continue,
My life is and has been blessed, with my loyal friends that I love, and I say to them all, good dogs and I thank you.

D. Matthew Beebe