The day we got you was the best of my life. We had been begging mom and dad for years to let us get a dog. We walked into the mall and walked right past the pet store, needless to say, that brought on more begging.

I think they either had enough of the begging, or something clicked. We walked into the store to look at the animals, not expecting to walk out with a pet. We looked at so many dogs and were almost sold on one until it peed on mom’s coat. After that, it was a no go.

We were on our way out when the worker said she had one more dog, but she was in the back because she had a cold. She went in back, and a few minutes later came out with you on a leash. Our family immediately fell in love and we knew that you were our pet.

You couldn’t come home with us that night because you were sick, so we had to wait a few weeks before we could bring you home.

You gave us 14 years of your life. I couldn’t remember what life was like without you in it because I was so young when we got you. I was five years old when we brought you home. I cuddled you as much as humanly possible for 14 years straight. You were my true best friend, the one I could tell anything to. You always knew when something was wrong and you would come and nudge your head into me, knowing I needed a good cuddle.

The day we put you to rest was one of the worst days of my life thus far. October 25, 2014, will be a day that is forever etched in my memory. It had been a long time coming. In fact, we had made an appointment previously to put you down, but we convinced mom and dad to cancel the appointment and give you another chance.

They canceled the appointment, and you gave us another year of memories. However, that second time around was different. We knew that there would be no third chance. You were getting older and were in a lot of pain, you were not the same dog we had gotten 14 years earlier, and that is okay. We still loved you the same as we did the day we brought you home. I could not bear to watch the vet put you down so I opted to stay at a friends house the night before.

I knew you loved the vet, you would be so happy going in, but I could not bear to watch that knowing in the back of my mind that you would never be coming home. I cuddled with you one last time before I left the night before and I cried. For the first time in a long while, I cried in front of the family. I gave you one last hug and said goodbye to you one last time that night.

As I write this, it has been 3 years to the day since we put you to sleep. It still hurts to think about you. But I know you are in a better place. I constantly think about you, and when I think of how much it hurt to lose you, I remind myself that it was a good thing. I think about how we gave you 14 years of life, something you may not have gotten otherwise.

But I also think about how you gave us 14 years of unconditional love, and 14 years with the absolute best pup anyone could ever ask for.