Brutus The Alpine Rescue Dog Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

They baptised him up on the Berner ridge,
the dog thought Brutus was a splendid name.
He trained between the summit and the bridge
a perfect pupil who adored the game.

The day when churchbells sounded through the day
a thousand tourists tortured tired feet,
tomorrow was the second day of May
the local Vicar took a bite to eat.

They saw him leaving the Café De Mange
but not again until the evening Mass,
a hundred people saw the Avalanche
it started at the top of Brenner Pass.

Brutus had been the Vicar's special friend,
he powered up the mountain's icy slope.
He slobbered and he fretted, would the end
be simply death or was there any hope?

He barked the loudest he had ever done,
the scent was something slightly in between
the stench of porkers having lots of fun
and yellow roses up near the latrine.

He did not scold the Vicar for his fear,
instead the odor was a pleasant breeze
his canine tongue inserted in one ear
the holy man sat up and had a sneeze.

Brutus lived long, in fact some twenty moons,
up in the church inside the Vicar's flat
was fed each meal from ancient silver spoons
and died a proud and happy dog, and fat.

He had succeeded early in his life,
and glory followed him like turbulence,
he took a Weimaraner as a wife
but she got cataracts inside a lens.

So they retired her with a new mate
up near Geneva in the lower land
while he stayed with the Vicar and his fate
it was a thing that few would understand.

So was he resting on his laurels then?
Performed no other service to mankind?
Oh no, inside the Vicar's holy den
he read the Bible to improve his mind.