I wrote this on Saturday night, but forgot to post it. >
Today my first dog passed away. It’s sad to say I am in Japan and couldn’t see him before he died. He was actually supposed to die 3 months ago, but he was hanging on to dear life probably because he knows how important he was to my family. Part of me wishes that he was really trying to hold on until I came back. You know dogs are faithful and all that business. Just look at the story of Hachiko. Well my mom said even though he could barely move he made it up to my bathroom and flopped on the rug. I am guessing if my bedroom door was open he might have flopped in there, who knows. Anyway, well I raised him like a mother raises a child. He was my Christmas present that I received in June. June 26th when I was in the 5th grade right after Jennie was born. I remember it like yesterday. We went to some hicks house out past Pontiac and there were 4 pups. We had to get a miniature schnauzer because dad is allergic to shedding. But secretly I think mom wanted one again. Anyway, there were two tame females that looked the same, Merlin and a runt. Merlin was the biggest and the toughest. So of course I chose him. I thought he would be a survivor if something ever attacked him. But the second I got him home I saw what a wuss he was. He had an encounter with a skunk and ran like the dickens. I grabbed my little ball of fur and put him in his cage. He wined and moaned. Eventually when he stopped pissing all over the place he managed to make it into my bed ever night until I started college. That’s when he thought I betrayed him and went to my parent’s bed and looked at my mom as his new mother. Well, anyway, he grew up in Michigan. We threw him in the pool, had a fake wedding with Casey next door, who has also passed away. Um, the next encounter he had with a skunk he tried to rip the thing to shreds and he got sprayed. Um, tomato juice does not work at all, it smells worse actually. Anyway, when we moved to Pennsylvania again we had to get adjusted to not having a fence which was really annoying. I was always afraid Merlin would run away. So I took him on frequent runs, but as he got older it was more like walk sniff, attack another dog, poo, sniff, wiz on everything, chase the akasya dog. Well, I feel bad like I should have been nicer to him since I wasn’t home so much. He was yappy but so is the rest of my family. So I really treated him like part of the family. He had personality. People really can get close to their pets can’t they? Well I felt like I had to write something to remember this day. He died peacefully on a pillow. Kidney failure. Well at least we can save people. ;_; For the record I did cry when I read the last sentence of my moms email. I am so emotional these days. Arg.