They tell me several animal adoptions

Resulted from our animal shelter display

Several visitors were moved by our stories

And several pets found new homes that day

I would have been extremely overjoyed

If even one deserving pet found a new home

We all need to find more compassion in our hearts

And I hope one day I can stop penning these poems

Old Tom

It was a bitterly cold and dark morning

Which truly matched my very somber mood

I was in yet another devastated neighborhood

Helping to distribute bags of dog and cat food

A sudden horrifyingly sad lament

Broke the eerie early morning calm

I looked down the dead deserted street

And saw him lying under a downed palm

He was very emaciated and terribly weak

This old tom cat had truly been left behind

As I sadly walked up to his dark hiding place

My heart broke when I saw that he was blind

It was evident he had been attacked

By a pack of starving roaming canines

He had numerous bleeding body wounds

Life on the streets for him had not been kind

I knelt down in the mud and dirt with him

And let this pathetic creature sniff my arm

Then I gently stroked his filthy bleeding fur

Trying to assure him I meant him no harm

I also offered him some food and water

But he was too sick and he quickly declined

And I wondered how many others just like him

In the very dark days ahead that we would find

But blind Tom seemed grateful for some company

He huddled closer to me with very faint painful cries

So I picked him up and I held him gently in my arms

And with one last heartbreaking sigh this old cat died

I buried this blind old creature

Beneath that uprooted palm tree

And this very dark dreary morning

Was truly the saddest one yet for me

As I somberly drove off in my old truck

My heart and my soul felt as dark as the night

And a feeling of remorse about modern morality

Filled my troubled thoughts with his kind’s plight

These days we seem to care little

About other life forms on our planet

And I sadly mourn our loss of reverence

Since life should never be taken for granted

I also sadly know that many will haughtily proclaim

What’s the big deal – old Tom was just a cat not a man

But I believe that we have failed miserably as His caretakers

In God’s very ancient compassionately designed Creative Plan

PLEASE ADOPT

OR SPONSOR

AN ABANDONED PET

AT AN ANIMAL SHELTER

DON’T PURCHASE ONE

FROM A PET STORE

OR AN ANIMAL BREEDER

UNTIL ALL THE TOMS

ON AMERICA’S STREETS

FIND LOVING NEW HOMES