My two-year-old black lab, Maggie, isn't just a family pet. In my household, she's human. She has her own voice, personality and attitude. As my mom would say, "she's lazy because she is in her teen dog years". She's our little sister and my best friend. That's why saying goodbye will be the hardest thing I will ever do.

Maggie was a surprise. In May of my Senior year of high school, I had just left school and arrived at my boyfriend's house, when my mom kept calling my phone. This was unusual because she knew where I was, since this was my normal after school routine. Next, my brother started to text me saying that my mom said I had to come home ASAP. I looked at my boyfriend and asked, "What test did I fail now?"

Thinking I was in trouble, I raced home. When I pulled up to my house, everyone's cars were in the driveway, including my brothers fiancé. I couldn't believe I was going to get yelled at in front of her. When I walked into the kitchen, everyone was huddled around something in the corner. I walked over and there she was, the smallest puppy I had ever seen. At only six weeks old, she was the size of my stuffed lab puppy.

Over the next two years, she grew about as fast as I could blink my eyes. She was jumpy and playful but trained extremely well. She enjoyed playing with cardboard boxes and catching snowballs. She went to doggy daycare because she's spoiled and couldn't have been cuter if she tried. However, things changed over the following nine months.

Maggie's personality began to seem different. The people at the doggy daycare would tell us that she wouldn't play with the other dogs anymore and she just laid around. She also stopped being able to bark. Initially, we thought this was due to the snowballs she loved to catch; maybe her vocal cords were frozen or had some damage. Once summer hit, we figured that maybe she had a piece of a stick caught in her throat. Then, she started to seem to have trouble breathing after running hard.

On November 12, 2015, I went with my parents to bring Maggie to Cornell University's Animal Hospital to have surgery after our vet found something blocking her airway. Maggie had to stay until November 16 after having a tracheotomy during her surgery as an alternate airway and having the mass in her throat removed.

A few weeks later, the doctors from Cornell called to let us know that the mass in the throat was a rare form of cancer that is only seen in puppies. Weeks before, we were told that the likelihood of it being this was slim. Sadly, it wasn't all that slim in our case. We refused further treatment for the cancer because we don't want to put her through something that isn't likely to work.

Instead, we are letting her be a dog and enjoying the time we have left together. Since this news, Maggie has had some good days and some rough days. We were told she had a couple of months to a year before the cancer grew back.

If there ever comes a day where she's struggling too hard to breathe, I will have to say my goodbyes to the best friend I have ever had. While I don't know where that will be, I try to make every day with her one she and I will remember and continue to love her unconditionally. She will always be my best friend.