Ready, Steady: One-Baby

You were little more than 
Ounces of gray fur
When you were brought to me. 
With big green eyes, 
And ears you had to grow into,
You were sick,
And malnourished. 
My home became your home.
I nursed you, and you waxed strong. 
Adventurer,
You escaped into the neighbor's cabbages one summer night. 
Retrieving you was not easy. 
I had never scaled a chain-link fence before. 
A night in March, you left the house
And wandered through the backyard. 
Mommie had to calm me
As I washed snow and mud off you. 
Let us not forget
The day you were locked in the refrigerator
(It was only for a few minutes),
Or the day you attacked a telephone installation man.
You have lived with me
For the past fourteen years. 
Now, I watch you wane.
Your kidneys are failing. 
Your limbs are not as fluid as they once were. 
I await the inevitable
Wearily, sadly. 
Lord,
Make me ready, steady me through
The grief and guilt that are coming. 
When You renew this world,
May it be that You restore
The creatures You gifted to us
In this life
Or else make the memory of them
Untouched with sorrow.