My Darling Tigger-Boy's First Birthday In Heaven Poem by Diana van den Berg

Happy Birthday, my beloved Tigger
On this your first birthday in Heaven.

My darling Tiggy-Wigs
We were together for fifteen and a half years
And that is a long time.

You were an orphan kitten
So I got you
When you were only
About three and half weeks (the vets said) ,
But such a feisty little survivor you were
And we became everything to each other
And knew each other so well.

When Daisy-Waise came along
When you were nine and a bit,
It was hard for you at first
To learn to share Mommy,
But Daisy-girl loved you from the start
And you soon learned to love her
As the precious sister she was,
And when she went to Heaven
Ten months before you
When she was fourteen and a half,
You mourned her passing with Mommy
And never got used to being without her
Any more than Mommy did.

Mommy went two months and a few days
Without a kitty or a doggy,
Devastated and lost and alone,
Despite the beautiful, life-saving cloud and sky messages
From you and Flicka and Daisy
Ever day.
I just managed to put
One foot in front of each other
Without all three of you.

Then on New Year’s Eve,
You and Daisy and Flicka sent me
Benji-dog and Cleo-cat
And our little family of three
Grew to six,
All of us with tight bonds
To each other,
But rain or shine
In Mommy’s daydreams
The six of us are together
And inseperable.
I miss you (and Flicka and Daisy) so much.
Happy Birthday my darling kitty cat.
I know that God and Flicka and Daisy
Will have given you a wonderful party
With all your animal and animally people friends.
Forgive Mommy her tears, my precious.
My only consolation is that none of you
Had to be left behind in this world without Mommy
And that you are all together in Heaven and happy
And Mommy’s Guardian Angels.

(15 March 2011)