When you decide to get a dog, you consider a number of things. What temperament best fits your family, how
big they will grow, how easily they can be trained, how good they are with
children, and face it, how cute you think they are. And when you bring home that perfect little
puppy, you can’t help but be consumed by the little bundle of fur, the pouting
eyes, the puppy breath, the softness of their ears, and their pure love for
life as they slip and slide down the hallway, still not completely in control
of their limbs. They become your everything
and you never, ever look back.
But what you forget to consider, what you knew but quickly
dismissed, is that their lives, their life with you, is short. Too short.
Incredibly short.
We only got 7 short years with our girly-girl. But what she gave us in those 7 years is astounding. She loved us unconditionally. She loved our children unconditionally (even
though with each of their births she got a little lower on the totem pole). She made us laugh every time she tucked her
butt and ran through the snow. She made
us furious every time she snuck a piece of who knows what off the ground and
ate it. She snuggled into bed with us as
we slept in our freezer of a bedroom in Charlestown. She loved her new family after we moved to
China. And she smiled that Pokey smile until
the very end.
She wasn’t just our dog, she was our family.
And she will always be our one and only girly-girl.
