Animal Helpline Dog Rescue

Dogs taken to council pounds in the UK have 7 days for their owner to find them. Many are transported miles away and unless microchipped it can be impossible to re-unite dog and owner.
On the 8th day your dog is likely to be destroyed if a rescue does not go and save your dog. Nearley 20,000 dogs lost their lives like this last year alone. Don't let this happen to your dog just because there is no room in a pound. Please make sure you micro chip you pets and keep the information correct and up to date.
Ths poem was written by Trudie James, the founder of Doris Banham Dog Rescue who we work side by side with to rescue pound dogs. Their website is www.dogsos.co.uk

Today is the death day of nobody’s dog

Nothing will mark it but a note in the log
I’m faceless and nameless and no tears will fall
For I know in your world I have no worth at all

To you, my sweet someone, I’m a friend and a dear
We ran the wind daily and you held me so near
But the gate was left open – I chanced a walk on my own
I’d have cowered in fear if only I’d known

I know how you cried on the night that I strayed
I know how you searched, I know how you prayed
But I went to a pound far far from our home
Where I crouched in despair in my kennel alone

I know that you phoned for I heard your dear voice
And I hoped you would hear me so I barked myself hoarse
Although I’m a Lab cross with stockings all white
On their form I’m a Staff cross – the description’s not right

So they said I’m not here and I sank to my bed
My kennel cough’s worse and I can’t raise my head
The rescue came yesterday but they hadn’t a place
For an un-neutered cross breed with his mucus-streaked face

If only you’d come to search for me here
You would have known me at once, you would have sensed I was near
You would have sorted my ills, you would have carried me home
And I promise our God no more would I roam

Now my eyes plead for mercy for my seven days are done
And I am waiting with dread for the final vet run
No arms will caress me as they inject me to death
No words will comfort me as I take my last breath

When the body man comes, it is fitting I’m found
In a bin bag in the freezer in the depths of the pound
Thrown away like the rubbish - no respect and no shame
Denied even the time to find you again

My loyalty and devotion they did cruelly betray
Without microchip or nametag, I am just a dispensable stray
Once waggy-tailed, once proud, beloved and free
Oh Dad look with pain at what mankind’s done to me!