Topper

 

Topper, my giant handsome ole lug
Who’d only allow me to give you a hug
You lived isolated for your first four years
The missing of human touch brought you tears

 

Then brought to town in an old rubbish cart
Left in a strange shelter with your broken heart
But you had jumped the fence when at home
The attraction of children caused you to go roam

 

You didn’t want to just guard of the sheep
When you heard children’s voices the fence you would leap
Your owners sure didn’t like that very much
I’m sure that they punished you with their harsh touch

 

Never a collar had been placed on your neck
The feel of it sure made you a nervous wreck
You’d flip over backwards if grabbed by man
So we had to come up with a much different plan

 

We came up with our own special language
We had to find ways to work around your baggage
I learned that you’d do anything that I’d ask
If I found a way to explain of the task

 

Even the many times when you were scared
You’d try what I asked if I got you prepared
I’d have to explain in our own special way
It wasn’t your fault, you wanted so to obey

 

The trust in your eyes when you’d look at me
And hours spent with your head on my knee
I’ll never forget for as long as I live
The love for me that you’d so freely give

 

What they did to you when you were back on the farm
Was unthinkable, yet they didn’t care of the harm
They injected acid into your family jewels
Instead of letting a vet sterilize with his tools

 

The surgery to fix what they did to you pup
Took Forty Two Staples to close it back up
And we thank Dr. Jackson for caring so much
That he let me remove them with my gentle touch

 

For to go back to him would have made you regress
You just wouldn’t have handled the much added stress
It took me four hours for their removal to take place
You’d let me do one, then you’d get up and pace

 

I know you were scared, but you’d come back to me
And then maybe do one before you’d get up and flee
By the time we got through it, we’d made such a bond
That with time, to my love, I knew that you’d respond

 

And respond, you did, in your own special way
You’d rather be with me than go outside to play
Whenever you had to go outside to pee
The minute you finished you’d come back in to me

 

You’d lean on the door so when opened you’d fall
I never had to bother to give you a call
You’d lie in the room watching each move I made
It took months before you finally got up and played

 

With every new dog who came into your home
You made sure at night they didn’t get up and roam
Everyone had to lie down in his place
Or you would jump up and go bark in his face

 

You would never connect or allow of a fight
You’d just bark in their face ‘til they withered with fright
Then back to your place you would just go lie down
And that look that you gave me looked just like a frown

 

I thank God that you were put under my care
But how quickly He took you just seems so unfair
I was all too familiar with the symptoms you had
I could tell by your limp that you had something bad

 

I knew of the cancer that appeared in your leg
And God wouldn’t remove it no matter how much I’d beg
So for three days I kept you right close by my side
Gave you treats, hugs and kisses and many a car ride

 

Then when Monday came, I knew what Bob would find
X-rays only confirmed what I knew in my mind
Was a cancer so vicious, there was nothing to cure
Of the pain it involves, you shouldn’t be asked to endure

 

So I held you so close while we said our good-byes
Even thinking of you still brings tears to my eyes
I thought we’d have so much more time with us two
There were so many things we just didn’t get to do

 

But I have to remember how you came to learn love
Before you left Earth for your Heaven above
And though I feel pain when I think of your face
Your special place in my heart, no one ever will replace