Having a dog gives you a new best friend who is always there for you in the tough times. They understand when you are sad or depressed. When they sense this, they come up to you and lay with you to try and help you feel better. That's how it was with my childhood dog until we just recently lost him.

Losing a family member is always hard, and your dog is part of your family no matter how long you've had him/her for. My dog was a part of my life since I was in elementary school. When we got him he immediately became a huge part of my life. He would always be around me as well as want to sleep in my bed with me to keep me company.

When I went into high school, I was busy with school, swimming and work so he got confused when I was never around. My dad would tell me that he would sit outside my bedroom door waiting for me to come home. When I finally did come home from everything, he would be waiting at the front door for me to walk in and he would greet me immediately.

Going off to college was the worst. Not being home for months at a time really affected him because he would lay outside my bedroom door for hours hoping I would come out. I always hated hearing how he was acting because I missed him so much and he missed me just as much. Even after we got a second dog, he was still my favorite dog.

What was making this process even more difficult was the fact that he was the second dog we lost in less than a year. We lost my other dog towards the beginning of summer 2018, and that was hard because he was so much younger than my first dog.

It's always hard to lose a part of you but I would never regret getting my own dog. I know at one point that they will be gone but they deserve to have a happy family to live with. Think about the present, not only about the future or the end.