How I Lost My Best Friend
“They say that dogs are man’s best friend, but they are so much more.”
When I was a child, I had a dog — a German Shepard, to be more specific. Over time, I grew extremely attached to him, and he grew attached to me.
He gave me purpose.
Every day, I would wake up early to feed him, play with him, and take him for a walk. One day, I woke up to find him by my side, violently scratching himself, and showing me his dry and chalky paws.
Something was definitely wrong.
He was bleeding and scratching in multiple spots, including his paws. He was also scratching at his nose, and breathing extremely heavily. I was old enough to know what to do, so I took him to the vet, where he was tested.
I watched him suffer through each test — the blood draws, the anesthesia, and the poking and prodding of the doctors. It was almost unbearable to watch my best friend getting tested as if he were a lab rat for different diseases, viruses, and conditions.
What I didn’t know at the time was that this was not the last visit I’d be making to the vet. His health kept deteriorating until doctor visits became almost weekly occurrences.
It took many visits to finally discover the true problem. At first, the vets blamed his issues on the extreme heat of where I lived at the time and allergies. By the time they found out the true reason for his health, it was already too late.
A year later, my dog was in an even worse condition. And I made a decision which I will forever regret and suffer from. I had booked a vacation for three days before he got sick, and was contemplating canceling it.
But I didn’t.
It was only a day into my vacation that I got a phone call. My best friend had been diagnosed with cancer that was too late to fix. When I heard this, I was extremely upset, but I didn’t expect things to happen so fast.
Two days later, I received another phone call, the most impactful phone call of my life. It was the very phone call that told me I had lost my best friend to cancer. He crossed the rainbow bridge when he was 9 years old.
To My Best Friend:
You were more than I could have ever asked for from a dog. I miss you, and I love you.
Your Best Friend