The Rescue Dog Poem by Danny Draper

Snowy was about 18 months old when we met him at the pound,
We went looking for a kitten but found a dog.
I didn't want a dog as it would dig up my endeared garden,
But this scruff nut Maltese Terrier was a mad dynamo.
He ran up and down, up and down his long exercise run with crazed enthusiasm
And returned to us repeatedly and cautiously to see if we were good
And gamble for a future.
He'd been there a few months waiting for a home or execution.
Was he trying to win us over? Or
was he just being himself, a bit mad and open and honest to the world?
In about half an hour we had become cautious new friends,
He with his emotional baggage from the people that had surrendered him
And his ever trusting heart that we may just find a place for him in our lives.
Soon he was home after a journey of assurances and patting from my girls.
He settled in and for the first few months chased a ball for up to three throws before losing interest.
Within a year he gave up on the ball perhaps realising he did not have to do tricks to be accepted and loved,
And to this end he seemed relieved.
He and I would wrestle and growl at each other and still do.
A dog is a great reason to legitimize growling in humans.

Soon he realised that he hated noisy screaming grumbling motorbikes
And pursued their boisterous passing in tangles of fierce and protective coils of movement and barking.
We came to yell at him and he came to ignore us as those bikes are really annoying.
Forever fumbling with my three sets of keys I found he would cower when keys were dropped,
Perhaps some baggage revealed, keys thrown at him in his former life.
He also loves to bark at birds, jets, the wind, Namagan, cats other than his mate Captain Kirk, people passing our side gate, and howl at police and other sirens.
Being a Maltese Terrier he really enjoys barking although sometimes it is of pain and at other times of fear, like fireworks, and other times curious and friendly when other dogs pass by or my brothers dogs come to visit.

One day he had a seizure and the vet advised it a product of thousands of yeas of inbreeding,
Our poor royal, Roman ladies dog.
In recent times it has increased and he is now on medication.
Most of the time however, Snowy just wants to sleep on the lounge or on your lap, as he is a lap dog by breed.
He has become great company and when the house is empty you are never alone, he is there for you with his unstinting love.

In winter he and I watch Rugby Union on tv
and have taken in a game or two at Granville Park,
he's fond of my hamburger as with all that I eat and share with him,
I'm on a dog diet.
Since we completed the laundry
Snowy and Kirky share the residence nightly,
He in his basket on the floor and the cat on the bench,
I put the cat under one arm and him under the other or
He lays down flat or tries to hide under our bed when its late at night.
The cat doesn't care but Snowy would rather be with us.
I usually hug him with his head tucked under my chin and he lovingly nuzzles in.
He and we will grow old and my garden has not been assaulted
And he does love to bark a lot and often,
He shares my office and my life and is a friend that I thought I did not need,
and we both know who was rescued.

Danny Draper
31/3/2014