Dear LooEe',

I'm writing to you, despite your inability to read, with the hope that this letter will give me peace of mind after an endless week of living without you. In light of National Dog Day being last week, I find myself missing you even more. I miss your big brown eyes and your terribly cold, wet nose gluing itself to the back of my leg as I walk around the house. I miss how you used to "share" the bed with me, taking over the entirety of my little twin with your sixty-plus pounds of white fluff and long legs. I miss your bringing me tennis balls that have been chewed within an inch of their life and expecting me to throw their crippled remains. I miss you greeting me in a blur of fur and wagging and wet licks every time I walked in the door, even if I just left for two minutes to put out the garbage.

I even miss your barking in the middle of the night and waking me up, because it was always a reminder that you were there to chase away bad guys and monsters (and mailmen, and random cars, and cats and heavy breezes) in the night. I miss the way you tilt your head to the side when I do something weird and give me a look that says, "What is wrong with you?" The way you really do smile when you're happy. The way you listen so intently to everything I say, no matter what it is. The way you smack me with your paw when you want to be pet or cuddled. I miss your relieved snort when I finally give you the TLC you so desperately want. I miss the way you run into things when the fur around your eyes gets too long, but you couldn't care less. I miss the way you would hit the glass of the car window when you wanted it rolled down and the subsequent funnel effect the wind had on your long nose and pliable fur. I miss your sitting in my lap, even though you're about ten sizes too big to be a lap dog. I miss your loving me unconditionally and my being able to love you the same.

LooEe', you are my best friend and constant companion. You listen to all my complaints, and you get more excited than even me when I come home with good news. You make me laugh all the time, and even though I can't see you every day, you still make my day with memories of you walking with me through my life and pictures and stories of you sent from home. I love telling my friends about you and the outcries of "Awwwww" that accompany pictures of you shown to friends. I love hearing about how you spend your days, sleeping in terribly odd positions, playing with your crazy cat (and yes, she is in fact yours; we brought her home solely because you seemed lonely), and just being the best and brightest part of the world in general (because, let's face it, you are living proof that dogs are just better than people).

Thank you for being there for me for the past eleven years, and I hope you still will be for years in the future. You're the best friend and protector a girl could ask for, and I desperately wish you could read so you would know how much you mean to me. I promise my leaving isn't because I don't want to see you, because I do. More and more every day. You're like a living teddy bear, soaking up all of the bad and replacing it with love and cuddles and endless fluff (literally).

I love you forever,

Lea

P.S. I'll bring you lots of treats when I breakdown a week or two from now and make the drive back home to see you.