When you’re having a Monday, your doggy is always there to lighten the load.
Cape Town, South Africa (15 September 2025) – They’re the ones who greet us at the door like we’ve been away for years, even if we just quickly zipped out to the shops. They know when we’re hurting, when we’re happy, when we need company, and when we just need to sit in silence. There’s nothing quite like the love of a dog.
They really are man’s best friend, and sometimes, the best reminder of our own humanity. That’s why a poem recently dug up by the Cape of Good Hope SPCA has us in our feelings.
Titled Testimony of a Dog, it first appeared in the organisation’s 1952 Annual Report, 80 years after the SPCA was founded. Written by Helen Harrington, the poem doesn’t seem to appear anywhere else in print, making it a rare find worth treasuring.
“It is a timeless reminder of loyalty and love, a truth as powerful today as it was more than 70 years ago.”
It’s true. The words strike a chord today just as they did back then. The loyalty of a doggy is never lost.
They’ve always been right beside us. Guarding fires, herding flocks, guiding the blind, becoming search-and-rescue partners, or just simply being there. What makes them so remarkable isn’t just what they do for us, it’s the way they stick with their people, without judgment or condition. It’s real unconditional love. Family.
This is exactly what Harrington’s poem talks about. Even when no one else will speak for us, a dog would. They are our witnesses, our shadows, our champions.
We’re all ‘dog people’ here at Good Things Guy, and we know you are too. You might appreciate this one.
Here’s the full poem, as shared by the SPCA:
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Testimony of a Dog
“They brought the culprit to the Court of Heaven.
The angel jurors looked at him and frowned,
And the Great Judge asked, ‘To whom was this case given!
Who pleads for him?’ – And there was no sound.
‘Come, come!’ the Judge was sharp. ‘Present your witness!
Let one voice raise for him. Let one heart speak.
Had he no quality that would redeem him?
Is this man wholly evil, wholly weak?
If so he is this hour consigned to Hades –
The messenger from Hell grinned, tapped his key,
When out of earth a dog came slowly.
And laid his head upon the bad man’s knee.” — Helen Harrington
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