Rachel- Thanks so much for the poems... I read them, and of course, cried. I will come back to copy them when I can. I have a small collection of poems such as the two you posted that I have been saving over the years. Several that I really LOVE, and the most important one that was a goal of mine to have back before Shina died, I have lost in transit. My favorite poem was in a dresser left at my mothers house... which she cleaned out, not realizing, before she moved here. I have been searching for years for that poem! I know its author unknown, I think it was called "A dogs ode to his master" and I remember a couple lines were like "I will sit outside the pearly gates, chewing a celestial bone..... for without my master here, heaven could never be home." and another line was the doggy talking to St Peter saying "I wont be a bother, I wont bark or make noise...id like to sit here and wait" or something to that effect. I got it out of an Ann landers column many years ago, and they have been no help in tracking it down. The two they sent me were not the same. Ooo got off the subject, didnt I? Anyhow, I just wanted to say thank you, I will add those to my collection. Someday, when I have enough, I will print them out and put them in a special album I plan on making just for Shina