Dear Pets,

What would my life be without you? Who would wake me up too early in the morning, make weird noises while I’m trying to sleep, be constantly needy when I’m at my most tired? I loved you from the moment you came into my life. Then, I realized I had to feed you, clean you, exercise you, and keep you entertained. You became one extra thing on my to do list and sometimes you can add so much extra stress and work to my life. Why were you ever brought into my life?

Well the answer to that is just too simple but incorporates so much. When I wake up in the morning you’re the first one to wake me up or meet my eyes. You smother me with love before I’ve even said a word or done anything for you. You sit there with me and watch movies or old TV shows when nobody else is around. You force me to get off my butt and exercise and smell the fresh air. When I needed a friendly face to look at, you were right there. The nights I was crying my eyes out or just needed to talk and feel like someone would finally listen, you were right there and there the whole time. I love you because you are so unconditionally mine and full of love for me and our family. You are nothing but happy and full of energy. And even when you are a lazy sack of potatoes, you are so effortlessly happy that we envy you all the time. You are the purest form of emotion, love, and life.

You are simple. As much as you need me to take care of you, you make it known what you want. You are not a complex puzzle that I have to spend my life trying to piece together, because you don’t want that. You want me to know who you are and what you need. There is no need for you to be complicated. So many times friends can complicate our lives, create drama and pain, even abandon us. But that’s not even a possibility in your head. And while many believe it is only for the reasons that we feed you, clean you, and put a roof over your head, and that’s simply not true. You have an unconditional love for us as we do for you. The thing about pets and people, is there is a connection between souls. We are not of the same species, we do not look the same, and we do not even speak the same language. Yet, somehow we perfectly understand each other day after day. Because love is a language that crosses unbelievable boundaries.

To have you in my life is one of the most amazing gifts I have ever been given. Even when you are gone from my life, you are always in my heart. You have taught me life lessons I could have learned nowhere else and left a warmth in my heart I will have in the coldest and loneliest time of my life.