An Artful Intersection Memories & Words
“He did things his way.” A lyrical pet tribute that tells the story of a loved pet’s life.
This heartfelt dog funeral poem titled “A Dog Named Beau” written and read by legendary actor Jimmy Stewart on the Johnny Carson Show way back in 1981 is an eloquent example of a pet eulogy. It’s sincere, funny, poignant, and moving.
Dogs, and perhaps all pets and living creatures, can see and feel death the same way humans do. We see death around us, not only in the form of sickness, steeples, and old family photos but also as the unavoidable ends of stories. Within every living entity, there is a story, and every story throughout the history of life has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Giving Life to the Ultimate End
We can see the final chapter to those stories all around us in the graveyards swooshing past our car windows, in the grief of strangers on the subway, and even the social media accounts that suddenly stop updating. Every living thing dies, and that is why this particular line from this poem is so haunting.
“He’d wake up at night and he would have this fear. Of the dark, of life, of lots of things.”
[More pet loss advice, insights, and resources: How to Write a Pet Eulogy, Pet Loss Condolences: What to Say and How to Say It, and Life After Loss: 5 Signs It’s Time for a New Pet.]
What keeps Beau awake at night are the same fears, thoughts, and concerns that keep all of us human beings up at night, too. Ultimately, we all make our journey into the night, but before the darkness there is life – our lives, the lives of our loved ones, and the lives of strangers and generations we will never meet or know. It’s overwhelming to think about, and that is perhaps why all living things must sleep: to connect what we know with what we don’t know but can feel.
Why Lots of Things Means Everything
During those vulnerable times when we wake from sleep for some unknown reason, maybe we – deep down – actually do know what that reason is: this will all end. That reality is sad, but knowing that there is an end makes everything that comes before it glorious.
Before death there is life. Before death, there are “lots of things.” And perhaps those “lots of things” that keep us and dogs up at night – both the good and the bad – are an inescapable and necessary part of a complete existence. Even if it doesn’t feel that way late at night.
Dogs never lie to us, even about the most difficult things.
RIP Beau, and Mr. Stewart. Together again. And always with thanks to this beautiful dog funeral poem.
[More pet loss advice, insights, and resources: How to Write a Pet Eulogy, Pet Loss Condolences: What to Say and How to Say It, and Life After Loss: 5 Signs It’s Time for a New Pet.]