I wasn't there the day you were born, but I'll never forget the day you were born into my life. Some nice people had rescued you from some early childhood trauma and by some miracle brought you to us. Sitting there with you in the backseat, know that the significance of having gained a brother wasn't lost on me.
My first words were "woof woof" and I presume yours were very similar. I had friends before you, but not all of them were real. Remember the time you were nose to nose with a horse and then decided to snap at it, prompting it to begin sprinting around its enclosure getting ready to do a whole lot more than just snap back at us? Well, we certainly ran our fastest that day, even with our tails between our legs.
Some people look at your kind and think you to be inferior, but you've proven to be more than adequately equipped in the cleverness department. If the madre and I weren't particularly inclined to let you outside only to have to let you back inside two minutes later in an ever repeating cycle... You would begin reaching through the railing beside the stairs and smack the lampshade until someone got fed up. If you were outside you would purposefully get your leash tangled just to ensure someone had to come dance around with you outside.
In regards to you, the term overprotective is a bit of an understatement; we were your family and you made that very clear. From terrorizing passersby with barks and snarls all the way to clawing at past girlfriends of mine; just because. If you didn't like someone... 'It was known.'
Through and through when I needed someone to lean on you were there. When I required a companion for an adventure you most certainly were there; and when I felt lower than low you were always there with a wide grin and a spotted tongue hanging out.
'They,' whoever 'they' are, say that 'if you love something/someone then let it go,' this last year I had to do exactly that but that's not to say it's been easy. I still have these particularly vivid dreams wherein you're still with us, and it's so intensely difficult to wake up from such dreams and return to what feels like a much more bleak reality.
At the end of the day I know that this goodbye is only temporary,
Until we meet again Sherman,
Your friend and Brother,
Joshua Lawrence Peck
