Luna inspires me to poetry!

There have been lots of laughs with Luna since she came into my life on 23 July 2019. Coincidentally, it was the 70th anniversary of my parent’s marriage, so I knew that she was going to be a permanent fixture in my life, even though I was only supposed to be fostering her short term. I was still grieving the loss of Paddy, my 5 year old rescue dog, who had been killed in front of me just 4 months previously. I really wasn’t ready to adopt again, but Luna needed urgent help.

She’d been found on the streets of Almoradi, near my home in Algorfa, covered in ticks, malnourished and carrying the scars of old injuries. She was a mess, and so was I. It felt like we were meant to be together, so I bit the bullet and adopted her,

In late October 2019, I had to come to England to sort out some personal stuff, and of course, Luna came with me. It seemed as though she was coping really well with all the changes she’d faced in such a short time, but in December, I injured my knee. I wasn’t able to give time to her training and exercise, and things got a bit out of hand.

My daughter, Elizabeth, stepped in to help, and being the Dog Whisperer she is, she soon brought Luna into line, As I was still out of action with my knee and persistent infections, Luna developed a really close bond with my friend Glenys, who is our host while we are in England.

Glenys finds this both touching and exasperating, as Luna seems to have a knack of being exactly where Glenys wants to be, a split second before she gets there. There have been a few near misses for both of them, and Luna was particularly persistent on Sunday. Eventually, Glenys had had enough, and she flounced into the lounge and announced:

I feel like I’m in a nursery rhyme – Mary Had a Little Lamb. Luna’s following me everywhere today!

We both burst out laughing, at the thought of Luna as a lamb, and then the creative right side of my brain kicked in, and I was inspired to write the poem below. There’s a bit of poetic licence in there – Luna is my dog, not Glenys’s, and she hasn’t dug a hole in the lawn. Yet! That was one of Paddy’s tricks though, and remembering it helped me with the rhyme pattern. Enjoy.

Glenys had a ruddy great dog, its fur was ever so black,

And everywhere that Glenys went, the dog was at her back

It followed her into the kitchen, when she was fixing lunch,

Hoping she’d drop some grated cheese, so the dog had a cheeky munch.

It followed her into the bedroom, and bounced all over the bed,

Leaving muddy footprints everywhere, and big scratches on Glenys’s head,

It followed her into the garden, when Glenys did the weeding,

 It dug a great big hole in the lawn, and then it all needed re-seeding.

So if, like Glenys, you have a big dog, with fur that’s the colour of coal,

Teach it how to stay, without delay, so your lawn doesn’t get a great hole!