Anyone that knows my dog knows how amazing she is (at least I think so). She is gentle, kind, fun, sassy, and slightly lazy. She is my best friend and I love her more than I can put into words. Which is why you could imagine how devastated I was when I found out a couple months ago that my dog Jen had cancer. I felt nauseous. I wanted to do everything in my power to help her. She is eleven years old, so I understand why some people wouldn’t go through with surgery for an eleven-year-old dog, but my family did. Jen had the surgery, and unfortunately they were unable to remove all the cancer. There was a lot that she had to go through after the surgery and for moment I was afraid that she wasn’t going to be herself. But sure enough she proved me wrong. She still has cancer and we are working on making the next decision and the best one for her, but luckily, she is back to her old self.
We got Jen when she was six months old. I had always wanted a dog for as long as I can remember. I remember it was always the first thing I would write on my Christmas list. It was the one thing I wanted more than anything. I remember thinking that if I couldn’t have a dog, then I was going to pretend that I was one (yeah I was a strange child, but that’s how badly I wanted one). After a lot of persuasion, my parents finally agreed to get us a dog. I remember the day we went to the Humane Society. We went there thinking we were going to get one of the black lab puppies we noticed they had available earlier in the week, but they were all adopted. So we went to look at the other dogs and they were all barking and jumping in their cages wanting us to pay attention to them. Every single dog was doing that except for one. I still remember looking over at Jen’s cage and there she was, lying on the floor just looking up at us. She wasn’t barking or going crazy. We were told we could pick a dog and play with them in a separate room. We played with a golden lab first before asking to see Jen. When we had Jen in the room with us, my mom told me to kneel down to Jen’s level so I didn’t scare her. When I knelt down, Jen came right up to me and licked me right on the face. That’s when I knew this was the dog for me. She was so loveable and gentle. We took her home that day, and ever since then, I’ve had my best friend. She is sweetest dog I know. Of course she had her crazy puppy stage but I personally think she learned pretty fast what to do and what not to do around the house. I know dogs that aren’t puppies anymore that are still crazy and chew up things, and bite people. Jen got out of that stage pretty quickly. She has never harmed anyone, she lets little kids grab onto her face and fur without it bothering her, she isn’t aggressive, she’s knows we love her, she listens to me as I play the piano, she’s smart, she’s incredible. There’s no other way to describe her. She’s absolutely incredible.
I know it seems silly that I want to get her presents for holidays and that I want to sing happy birthday to her on her birthday and I want to get her doggy ice cream and put candles in it like a birthday cake. Yeah, I know that’s borderline insanity, but I don’t care. She is a part of the family. She is my best friend. And you treat your best friend/family the best. This is why I was so upset to learn that she was sick. But I’m also incredibly happy that despite her illness, she is acting herself again. I want her to be happy in this time of old age and she seems to be. That’s really all that matters to me. I have faith that we will make the right decision about what to do next with Jen. Anyone who hasn’t met her yet definitely should. Thank goodness all the black lab puppies were adopted already that day, because even though I was disappointed that I didn’t get a little puppy, little did I know God was setting me up with something so much better.