Sacrificial Lambs

My, how we tend to plague ourselves,
though love is not always associated with pain.
Consider this: when children abandon the
cozy nest parents devise to shelter their
brood, nature abhorring a vacuum urges
pet adoption and our lonely homes are
once again enlivened with the patter of
little feet. The anxieties spent caring for
children transformed, we lovingly care for
the welfare of our furred-and-tailed companions.
Pleasure intermixed with responsibilities,
and when our adorable charges become ill
or old and decrepit, occasionally corrective
surgery extends their too-short years with us.
They return to the comfort of home, from
the cold sterility of an operating room, to
recover good health while we administer
pain-prescribed opioids and urge nutrition
upon them, our surgery-disfigured darlings,
whimpering with bewildered pain until
health and equanimity are restored. Their
operation-ready shaved hides hideous and
raw as we balefully regard the multiple-
thousands-cost for clearly imperfect grooming.