Down the Road We Go

Allow me to tell you a heartwarming tale of a dog named Snoop and a pony called Paint.

I lived in an apartment, so no pets were allowed

Didn’t bother me much that I had no feline or hound.

For just down the road I kept a small pony

Ornery and stubborn and her stare down right stony.

But at that small farm the owner had a dog

Snoop, a fast black mutt who loved to run and jog.

Now Paint did not like Snoop, or any dog, at all

How dare a dog come along when from her pasture she was called.

Paint would snap and kick and run them out if she could

In her mind they were no different than the coyotes lurking in the wood.

But old Snoop was still young enough to run and to dodge

Plus she knew better then go where the horses were lodged.

So when I hitched up my Paint to her fast little cart

Snoop came along and thought herself smart.

While we took the high road like that old Scottish song

Snoop took the low road through ditch, field, and bog.

She crisscrossed and zagged, she dove and she swam

Truly the old girl was happy as a clam!

But Paint held true, her way straight as an arrow

She saw Snoop’s zigging as annoying as a sparrow.

That is until we reached our mark some two or three miles down the road

That’s where the fun begins and our ride becomes a completely different show.

They race alongside as fast as they can

What took hours before now takes minutes to span.

Paint’s hooves of iron eat up the ground

While Snoop’s swift speed matches the tires spinning round.

When the race is over they will still be the same

But just for right now they enjoy their fast paced game.

Always Snoop cheats and cuts cross a field

Beating us home by several turns of our wheels

Paint never seems to mind this, but to be completely honest

That might be because she has blinders on her harness.

The years go by, ten years in fact

Snoop went first and Paint a few months past.

I miss them both dearly their games and their antics

And haven’t yet tried to move their things to the attic.

But it is not a sad tale this small poem of mine

Even though I have moved by this point in time.

I’m still in an apt and have a new pony to train

She will start pulling the cart, this year the same

And the new stable she stays in just down the road

Has a little terrier dog who makes my heart glow.

For already my new pony, Peaches, she’s called

Loves little Izzy, though the two never brawl.

One chases the other round the pen with such glee

Then they spin right around and chase the other with ease.

I can’t wait to go down the road with these two

I like to think maybe Paint and Snoop will come too.

As much as I miss Snoop and my old girl Paint, I remember what my mechanic once said to me after she passed:

“If you focus too much on the old, you will miss the new.” Strangely poetic coming from him, but he also raises black labs so he has had more dogs, and other pets, come in and out of his life than I have.

So now I try my best to focus on Peaches, and my new baby pony Pebbles, and try not to compare them to old Paint too much. They are themselves after all, they will never be her, but I still love them and look forward to the new adventures we will have along the way.

Who knows, maybe we will go even farther than just a few miles down the road…