How Much is that Puppy in the Window?
My bones ache, my muscles are sore, so tired I have grown,
Many friends surround me, lots of different breeds,
I am a bitch or so they call me, I hear it's not a bad name,
I sit and watch day after day, so many puppies being born,
I can see the grass growing tall and green, I long to sniff and feel it.
Instead I walk upon this screen, so hard, so rough, so cold.
My friends have told me they lived in places, long before this one,
I long to have just one human pet and kiss me, and maybe play a game.
Instead they bring another dog and toss him in with me,
The little girl that sits beside me, cried out the other day,
She was gone but just a day, when her sister was beside me,
The other day they came and checked me, while my puppies were being born,
They scooped me up, it hurt so bad, my blood was everywhere,
They took me to that big green field and laid me on the ground,
They covered me with more soft soil, I had nothing to fear.
No longer do I imagine the feel of human touch,
There is a great big colored bridge, and fields that go on forever,
By Kathy Coffman
I sit within the small confines of this tiny cage I call home.
They too share my aches and pains, with no humans to tend our needs.
Lots of puppies I have whelped, to them its just a game.
Where do they go, what happens to them, when from their Moms they're torn?
I've never walked upon that field nor have they let me near it.
My feet ache, my toes are sore, I'm exhausted and feel so old.
Where humans touched them every day and with children they could run.
I know it will never happen, but I wish it all the same.
Another litter I must bear, there's no end that I can see.
She screamed out loud then she went limp and the pups were taken away.
She too had some more puppies, so small and weak and tiny.
"This one's too big, she's no use now, her insides are too torn."
They never tried to help me, they didn't seem to care.
The smell was heaven and the ground so soft, I tried to look around.
I closed my eyes and just relaxed, I knew the end was near.
Or how it feels to run and play, here I have so much.
I'm happy, I'm home, I'm someone's friend. It couldn't get much better.
This is Hannah, and before she came to live with us she was used as a breeding machine, then when she became too old she was thrown out. She hadn't been with us very long when
this photograph was taken and you can still see the sadness in her eyes.
Hannah died 5thJuly 2001.