“I’m the 5th born in my family, the 4th kid was born sixteen years before I was, so to say there was a huge age gap would be an understatement; my siblings were more like parents than regular siblings. However, my dog filled that role, he was like my brother. My family got him when I was one month old. We grew up together, spent every waking moment together. He was a huge dog, I would ride him up the hill and just hang out with him all day. He tolerated me just like a brother would tolerate a little sister…as I pulled out his eyelashes (innocently of course) as I smothered him with my hugs and sat on top of him practically suffocating him. He was so over protective of me, looking back it’s hard to believe that a dog could act the way he did. One time we had someone he was unfamiliar with doing some backyard work. He had an axe I guess to chop a tree down or something; when he raised it my dog went for him thinking he was going to hurt me.
He died on my first day of 7th grade. He waited for me to come home, gave me a look that I swear was him telling me he loved me, and he passed.He shared my childhood with me and that’s the best memory of all.”
