I’ve spent a lot of days with you in this life. Through it all, you were always right by my side. You were the first one I saw every morning and the last one I saw every night. Every day I made sure to yell good morning in your face and squeeze you a little too tight. When I wasn’t there to do so, well, I’m sure you noticed because on the dreadful day that you weren’t-- I sure as hell did.

We grew up together, me and you. You’ve seen me through all the phases and all of the ups and downs but you still loved me the same. You made sure that you were always the one that got my attention. You made sure that you were always the one that I called my best friend. I want you to know that you were always my favorite part of this world.

I miss everything about you, my pretty girl. I miss feeding you half of my dinner and always giving you some of my ice cream, even though we both knew I wasn’t supposed to. I miss frantically looking for my shoes, just to discover that you were laying on top of them the whole time. I miss sitting on the deck all summer, reading books while you laid on my feet. I miss laying on the floor and listening to records while I played with your fuzzy ears. I miss finding your fur all over every possession that I owned. I miss coming home at any hour of the day to find you waiting for me. I miss when you would wake me up at 7 a.m. every morning for no apparent reason. I miss when you would lick my tears away-- because I could really use that right now.

It’s almost been a year since the day that you left me. It still hasn’t hurt any less. I can truthfully say that the moment that I had to let you go was by far the worst I’ve ever experienced, but still, I want to say thank you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to love you so unbelievably much. Thank you for loving me back. Thank you for leaving me with ten years of memories to remember you by. Most importantly, thank you for letting me be the last one that you saw.

I want you to know that I still come home every day and look at the floor where your bed used to be. I still cry every time that I say your name and that’s okay. I don’t want it to go away. I want to remember you. I want to miss you as much as I can because that means that a part of you is still with me.