I may have mentioned that I have a lot of Shakespeare stuff. T-shirts, jigsaw puzzles, keychains, laptop skins … got it all. So much, in fact, that my family’s taken to creating wholly original items! I was definitely not expecting this for Father’s Day 2025:
I love it! A few months back, my oldest had found a service that would do this for your pet using a number of standard templates – king, queen, princess. Without telling me they scoured the site looking for a Shakespeare template, but alas it didn’t exist.
So my son actually made this! I think it came out really good, I love it. Her face is huge, you really get that feeling that you’re being stared at.
Unfortunately (there’s never a good way to drop this into the conversation!), our dog passed away between the time they made these presents, and Father’s Day. Awkward? Not as bad as you’d think. I think we were all happy for the remembrance. We’ve all been looking through our hundreds of pictures anyway, so it was nice to see a creative surprise.
But I am going to attach something to this post to mark the occasion. In times of grief, I’ve always gone back to Constance’s speech in King John, and I wondered if it could be made relevant here. With a little help from AI, I think the answer is yes, it certainly can. Thank you, Shakespeare. Flights of angels, Belle. See you again someday.
Grief fills up the room of my sweet girl:
Lies in her bed, walks up and down with me,
Carries her leash, drops her worn-out toy,
Noses the door, waits where she used to wait—
She haunts the silence. I am not myself;
I am the echo of a happy life
That padded soft behind me on four paws.
O, that my arms were long enough to reach
Into the quiet place where good dogs go—
I’d pull her back by her velvet-soft ears
And feel her heartbeat warm against my chest.
You tell me time will soften what I feel,
But time is cruel—it will not lick my tears,
Nor lay her head across my feet at night.
Grief is not madness, though you call it so.
I am not raving—I am only empty.
She was my shadow, soul, my loyal girl.
Don’t bid me be at peace. She was my dog.