Your Thoughts on This Poem

16 years ago

I really don't mean to bore some of you to death bout McDuff, but we miss him terribly. I wrote this poem to him, and I thought some of you would like to read it.

Our Sweet, Sweet McDuff

The Northfork of Long Island was very new to me,

I felt alone here, and kind of different from the way I used to be.

Then I got you at 6 weeks of age,

I strutted you through Greenport, and oh, my love, you were all the rage.

Your huge Saint Bernard paws and your very, very beautiful face,

Introduced me to people in this unknown place.

I loved you from 6 weeks to 7 years old,

And, of all the hearts I know, yours was a true gold.

People giggled and were awed at your big gorgeous 180lb. self,

You were magnificent, my man, in all your glorious stealth.

Some were afraid of you at first,

But you showed them love then showed them a "little" bit of slurp.

I met people I never knew,

Now they are a part of my life all because of you.

Although you were never asked to guard our front door,

You did, my gentle giant, and made our B&B guest feels safe and secure.

What a lucky girl your sister, Daisy, was,

To have one so noble as her only love.

The respect and adoration you had for each other,

Was so beautiful to watch and made us all wonder.

How you loved each other and us so much,

You must have been a gift from God, precious McDuff.

So proud, so proud, so proud and blessed we were to have you my beautiful boy,

My heart aches now at the loss of my pride and joy.

You are in heaven now,

And to you, Our Sweet, Sweet McDuff, we all take a bow.

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Comments (22)

Mystical Manns
16 years ago
That's a lovely tribute to your Heart dog, Trisha.

I understand the emptiness you're feeling and the need to give him credit for having such a huge effect on your life.
tralynn
16 years ago
Trisha

I think that is a beautiful poem. You said it from the heart and that is all that matters. I can understand your pain. What took your McDuff away from you at 7 years? I am very curious.

I am asking this because I have had nothing but St. Bernards for the last 32 years, and I love all dogs but St. Bernards are the dog of my choice, for my pet. I lost my BAILEY in March of this year at the age of 9, which is really getting old for the breed.

I can understand your pain, there is something about their eyes that just makes your heart melt.

You should frame your poem with a picture of McDuff. That is definetly a wonderful tribute to him.

Tralynn
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nodakgal
16 years ago
It is a beautiful poem Trisha! I know your pain is great. McDuff was a sweetheart. How is Daisy doing without him?
jannie
16 years ago
A beautiful poem, he must have been a magnificent fur friend.
suzieque
16 years ago
Lovely. A very nice tribute to a special love.
petaloid
16 years ago
I think your poem is great -- heartfelt and touching.
liz
16 years ago
I think it's a beautiful poem...and a very fitting tribute to your buddy...When we lost our collie Moses...I took this picture to the vets office to thank them for taking such good care of him...It has the poem titled "The Loan" on it...They still have it up...Maybe you could put your poem on a picture of McDuff and display it prominently in your B&B...It would be a wonderful honor to him...They'll be days when you walk by it and want to cry...but then the day will come when you walk by and smile for all the wonderful memories he gave you...(((Trisha)))

and...if you don't have the program to do this...send me a nice picture of McDuff...and I'll add your poem to it and send it back to you!
trisha57_ny
Original Author
16 years ago
Okay, so this poem is a go. thanks so much to all of you.

tralynn - two years ago McDuff had carsino sarcoma -- a very slow growing, but invasive cancer in his back leg. It started when we noticed he was kind of holding it up sometimes.
When he was outside, flies would hoard on this leg. Flies make my skin crawl, but from them, we knew it was an infection.
We took him to vet, they said cancer, we said "what?!" and that night we agreed to have it amputated. $10,000 later he was running at full speed, going up and down stairs, swimming -- he was amazing. The best $10,000 we ever spent.

This past July, he had a lump on his front leg. We knew.
Took him to vet. Yup, cancer back again. They gave him 4 - 8 months. He was in pain in Nov. With all he went through, and the love we had for him -- this big guy did not deserve to be in such pain. So we made the decision.

I'm so sorry for your Bailey. Losing a Saint Bernard, is so hard. It's been 2 months and it's just now getting a little better.

I know -- these Saint Bernards are the best dogs in the world. They are quiet, they don't eat shoes or couches, they don't yap, they don't need alot of exercise, therefore, much to everyone's astonishment, they eat one bowl of food a day, and they are gentle and kind and beautiful. And you can grab them and hug them and then they look at you with those beautiful, knowing eyes.
liz ga - what a gorgeous collie! And your picture of him with the poem is amazing. I would LOVE to have the same thing. And I so thank you for offering. But I've tried here numerous times to post pictures, and it's just not happening. lol. I'll see what I can do about posting a picture of Duff so you can place the poem on it.
Mickey15
16 years ago
Trisha, I must've missed that you lost McDuff. I'm very sorry for your loss. I know how much it hurts, I cried for months after we had our little Spanky put to sleep.
Hugs,
Tammy
trisha57_ny
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Tammy
Doesn't it hurt? The first two days, I had no emotions whatsoever. I was saying to myself "what's wrong with me, I knew this was coming, but I'm not crying?"
Well, then it hit. And I've been grieving everyday since.
We got Christmas Cards -- "Dear Trisha, McDuff and Daisy" and he was put to sleep on Nov. 4.

I'm so sorry about your Spanky. And I know how hard it is.
Why do they take a little piece of our hearts when they go?
It's because they don't care if we're fat or too skinny, or if we're ugly or beautiful, or we're shy, or whatever. They love us no matter what.
littlebit_gw
16 years ago
Trish,
Your poem is a beautiful tribute to McDuff.I am not sure if I knew he had crossed the Rainbow Bridge or not.I did know about his cancer.. My heart aches for you because even though we lost Bear in March, I still get teary eyed thinking about him.
For Christmas Mike got me a paw print that has a place to put in a picture. The words on it say

Our Hearts still ache in sadness and secret tears still flow. What it meant to lose you no one will every know.

It was the first thing I opened and of course I cried like a baby.

tralynn,
I didn't know you are a Saint Lover also..They are wonderful. We lost our Bear at 7 (also due to cancer) back in March. In August we found and fell in love with Tank. He is now 7 months old and a handful! He already weighs close to 100 pounds and eats everything in sight including our deck.LOL
liz
16 years ago
Trish...send it to my email...lizzyb55@gmail.com...make it as large as you can...cause when you blow it up...you don't want to lose resolution...

Then I'll play with it in my photo program...add the poem and email it back to you and then you can blow it up and put it a nice frame...

(((Littlebit)))...my hubster lost his friend Duncan earlier this year...I was gonna give him a blowup poster size of Dunkie but I knew it would make Christmas just too sad...I love the paw print and maybe I'll try and find that for my hubster...we can put it in a prominent spot in our yard...I just found a box that has a picture frame on top for his ashes and now he rest in our collie curio with the other two collies we've lost since 2000...It's so sad to lose our furbabies...I'm still chuckling at your Tank eating your deck...
tralynn
16 years ago
Trisha,

My heart really goes out to you on losing your GENTLE GIANT,
McDuff. That's what I feel about St.Bernards.My Bailey also had the bone cancer and the vet said since hers was in her front leg, they could amputate, but because St.Bernards are so front heavy she did not think she would do so well. She said it would probably mastisize (sp?) some place else anyways. It just seemed like it went so fast. They recommended we just take her home and LOVE her for as long as we can and we will know when the time comes to have her put down. We had her an additional five weeks when we knew the time had come. She had stopped eating and drinking. It just broke our hearts.
A few months before that we were in Fl. visiting my parents and we met a neighbor of theirs, and he loved to paint. He showed us some of our paintings, and he had a picture of a St. Bernard. I told him how much I loved them and that I had one, he told me to send him a picture of Bailey. I sent it to him and he painted a picture of her for me. Sent it back home with my parents, when they came north for the spring. They brought it back to me and it was just a few weeks after we had to put her down. What a beautiful picture.

Your pain is so raw right now, but shortly it will start to lessen and you will find yourself smiling and laughing at some of the antics McDuff and you had.

If you do a picture with the poem I would really love to see it. Have a good day.
kacram
16 years ago
Hi Trisha. beautiful poem. I'm sorry about McDuff.
We had to have our Lab put down because
of bone cancer. I'm sorry.
littlebit_gw
16 years ago
Liz I know ebay had them..I looked for my mom who lost her lab last month. Just do a seach for paw print pet memorial.

Tralynn..It sounds like our Bear to a tee. His was in his back leg and the vet wouldn't amputate because of his size. Sometimes that is my one regret that I didnt make them do it. He wasn't using his leg anymore and I wonder if that would have given us more time together..But then I wonder if the surgery would have been too much.We ended up having him for 6 more weeks..

No matter wheter it had been 6 months or 6 years the time would have never been right..

Hugs to all who have lost their furkids...
hgl_gaylemarie
16 years ago
I think it would be wonderful to hang that on the wall. How beautiful.
jel48
16 years ago
It's a beautiful poem, Trisha, and a lovely tribute to the best of friends!
pammyfay
16 years ago
Trisha--

I'm kinda new to this board, but I wanted to chime in and say that I also found the poem so beautiful.

Especially the line about McDuff introducing you to new people. That's exactly what my little Cairn terrier did for me (among other things!). When she died, at 3, I was simply amazed at the neighbors who came over, called, talked with me, sat with me, felt as much pain as I did. I'm really glad that you've also been left with as nice a bond with your neighbors as I was.

I found it slightly therapeutic (not 100%--I'm not sure it's ever possible to reach that!) to complete a photo scrapbook of my pup that I'd started. You might find it soothing to do, too.
trisha57_ny
Original Author
16 years ago
nodakgal,
hey there, how are you? hope all is well.
Daisy is doing alot better now. Thank you so much for asking. I kind of knew she would miss Duff alot. Duff was 10 months old when we got Daisy at six weeks old. They were together ever since -- all Daisy knew was McDuff. He loved and took care of her -- truly amazing to watch them.

They always slept back to back -- their backs were always touching each other.
So now Daisy is 6 years old. Duff's been gone about 2 months when this happened. I was decorating for Christmas and went down to the basement to get decorations. Daisy stands at the top of the stairs and watches me -- she doesn't come down to the basement.
So now I'm decorating the tree, the house, etc. I didn't see Daisy for about an hour (very strange).

When I looked for her, she was down in the basement lying on Duff's bed. We put Duff's bed down there when we lost him. I was so overwhelmed -- still with the loss of Duff and especially with the reality that Daisy was greiving just as much as we are.
NOW, her 150 lb. self sleeps between me and hubby. She and Duff had their own beds (twin size lol) on our bedroom floor. Yes, we have a king size bed, thank the good lord. But the snoring?! I don't know who's worse. Wouldn't be so bad if they could be synchronized. But, I'm not complaining.
trisha57_ny
Original Author
16 years ago
littlebit-
I do need to see a picture of Tank! 7 months -- must be a big, beautiful boy! - patscannell@optonline.net
nodakgal
16 years ago
Awww Trisha, what a story! They do mourn like people do. Give Daisy an extra hug from me tonight.
I know none of you will ever forget your wonderful McDuff!
(((Trisha, Daisy and family)))
trisha57_ny
Original Author
16 years ago
nodakgal,
I just woke up Daisy and gave her a big hug from you. She said to give you a big slurpy, thank you kiss.

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