Forever in my Heart

These past few days have been rough. Thursday evening I got a call from my parents telling me that my first dog passed the night before. Now I have known many people whose pets die and never quite understood why they were so upset, "it's just a dog" I would think. But now I have a whole new perspective on the matter. Dakota was not just a dog, he was family.

I remember when we first got him. My aunt and uncle used to live a few streets over from me and walked me back to my house one day after I spent the day playing with my cousins. I walked into my house a mere six years old and got attacked by the cutest, most excited, and fluffiest puppy I had ever seen. Before that day I had never been so excited. From that day until this past Wednesday, Dakota had been there for every major event in my life. The day I got Diabetes I came home and had my puppy waiting for me to hug on and make me feel better. The day I made the High School dance team I came home and laid with my dog on the floor and pet him and let him lick my face because I was the only one who ever would. The day I graduated high school he sat on the floor with me as I opened all of my gifts from friends and family. They day I came home from my last time of ever being able to go to Camp Sweeney he was there to greet me. The day I moved out of my home he was there to say goodbye to me. I have so many amazing memories with this dog in my life and now knowing that I won't make any more breaks my heart.

I will always remember you laying in my bathroom wedged between the wall and the toilet because you were scared of the rain. I will remember the way your paws sounded as they dragged across the wood floors. I'll remember the way you would bark at Casey (my other dog) every time we gave you both food in your bowls. I will remember how excited you would sometimes get and jump around the house even though you were old and could barely walk sometimes.

Even though I was not there to say goodbye to you, and I have so many regrets about that, I will always love you and always remember you. I wish my spring break could have been just one week earlier so I could have gotten my proper goodbye. I wish I could have been there during the day when you started feeling sick so you didn't have to suffer for that long. I just wish I could have been there. But you will be forever in my heart.

"It's the oldest story in the world. One day you're seventeen and planning for someday, and then, quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today, and that someday is yesterday and this is your life."
-Nathan Scott, One Tree Hill