Stray Seasons

I hope you think of this the next time you visit your local animal shelter. All to often, this kind of thing really does happen. So please, open your heart and your home to an animal, and please, spay and neuter your pets.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STRAY SEASONS

Even in the Spring of life I never knew a human’s touch.
I roamed the streets in search of food, a place to sleep, and such.
But I was young, too small to fight the others all about;
So many nights I curled to sleep, ‘round a stomach gone without.

Then Spring turned into Summer, and my body it had grown,
Yet still I went in search of food and roamed the streets alone.
Until the day a human came and saw me eating trash.
He slipped a leash around my neck and took me in a flash.

Then I had food and a sleeping place with a roof above.
Then I had friends and many humans who would show me love.
But it was not a home wherein I spent my Summer days;
For I’d been taken to the pound; a shelter for us strays.

As Summer turned to Fall many humans looked at me.
They called me cute, said I was sweet, and then they left me be.
My old friends left and new ones came, then they too went away.
But never I; I still remain, and here I wake each day.

Now my Fall is waning and I feel the coming cold;
And I cannot help but wonder: what will happen when I’m old?
Will some human take me home and love me every day?
Or am I doomed to here remain, ever just another stray?

Will I ever know the warmth of a kind and loving home?
And will I ever know the joy of my own backyard to roam?
Will I ever get to feel a kiss upon my head?
And will I ever get the chance to sleep in my own bed?

Is there still a chance, a hope for a stray like I?
Must I stay here in a cage ‘till the day I die?
Will I know love in my waning days as Winter comes from Fall;
Or not ‘till I meet God above, who has love enough for all?

-Levi Blau