In a letter to Jingle, Pat writes:

Speaking of dogs, I found such a lovely poem in Aunt Hazel’s scrapbook called The Little Dog Angel. I cried when I read it because I thought of you and McGinty. I could just SEE McGinty slipping out of heaven’s gates between St. Peter’s legs to ‘bark a welcome to you in the shivering dark.’ Oh, Jingle, I’m sure dear little dogs like McGinty MUST have souls.

-Pat of Silver Bush ch.21,5

The Little Dog Angel
By Norah M. Holland

High up in the courts of Heaven to-day
A little dog-angel waits,
With the other angels he will not play,
But he sits alone at the gates;
“For I know that my master will come,” says he:
“And when he comes, he will call for me.”

He sees the spirits that pass him by
As they hasten towards the throne,
And he watches them with a wistful eye
As he sits at the gates alone;
“But I know if I just wait patiently
That some day my master will come,” says he.

And his master, far on the earth below,
As he sits in his easy chair,
Forgets sometimes, and he whistles low
For the dog that is not there;
And the little dog-angel cocks his ears,
And dreams that his master’s call he hears.

And I know, when at length his master waits
Outside in the dark and cold
For the hand of Death to ope the gates
That lead to those courts of gold,
The little dog-angel’s eager bark
Will comfort his soul in the shivering dark.

Source

“The Little Dog-Angel” in Spun-Yard and Spindrift. A Celebration of Women Writers. Online, Internet: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/holland/spindrift/angel.html