Handle With Care

She has become a family heirloom.
No one remembers life without her.
Not least our 15-year-old granddaughter
whom she handily pre-dated in this
household by four privileged years
of devoted care and attention.

She is still herself, self-possessed,
distantly aloof, aristocratic,
highly intelligent, a living reproof
to those who insist awareness and
practical sense exists in limited-
to-absent quantities in our
prized canine companions.

These days of breathless uncertainty
she glides like a dark-hued wraith
through our shared abode whose
every crack and corner is seared into
her brain no longer dependent on neural
transmission of sight and sound.

Though her dark coat is now threaded
silver-grey she moves as elegantly as of
yore, needing only a guiding, gentle tug
on soft harness, as we lead. She is like
unto delicate porcelain, treasured for its
aged beauty, the pleasure taken in its
presence. A rare treasure, dearly held.