Sweetie

I laid in bed last night and googled, “how to cope with the death of a pet”. It’s not because I’m unfamiliar with loss or death, but the sudden death of our Sweetie girl this weekend feels like something I’ve never experienced before.

As a family, we waited years and years for Sweetie. We wanted her so badly. We’d cut out magazine pictures of her and paste them into our “Dream Books”, and we’d talk about what life would someday be like with her. We knew with all our hearts that a family dog would be a part of our future.

When the right time arrived, we fought for her. We did all of the proper pleading and begging, pulled all the right strings and pushed all the right buttons. Shelby scoured the internet, and when she happened across a rescue named, Sweetie, she followed her heart and insisted that this one was the one.

Sweetie was awkward and scrawny and full of so. much. energy. She wasn’t exactly a beauty queen either and from the right angles could’ve resembled a reptile. Not to mention the fact that she had no tail. But she was playful and gentle and had a brightness that was impossible to miss, a brightness that has filled our lives with so much light for years.

Sweetie loved us. She knew every single one of our hearts and was always mindful of spending quiet moments alone in each of our arms. Sweetie moments. She was our companion, our girl, the missing piece to our puzzle. The dog of our dreams.

Together, we waited years for our Sweetie girl, and she was so worth the wait. She brought us joy that we would never have known without her. She shared the purest form of love with us and allowed us to love her in a way we’d never loved before. She was our angel. A reflection of the best parts of who we are as a family.

I’m never going to forget that awkward dog. The way she’d sing out with excitement when being greeted at the door, or how her collar would jingle as she’d run. and run. and run. How we’d always regret giving her ‘human’ food but how we could never deny those beautiful amber 'human’ eyes. And the perfect fit she was against our chests. No one cuddles like Sweetie. No one does a lot of things like Sweetie.

I’m missing her so much. Losing her feels like an end to a sweet chapter of life. It reminds me that my family is growing up, and life is changing. And sometimes I don’t want to let go. I just want to hang onto anything left of that part of our youth when days were simpler and we were all together.

But life carries on. And as life’s chapters come to an end, new ones begin. I’ll always keep our precious Sweetie girl in my heart. She is a part of who I am and a constant reminder of the love we share as a family. Thank you, Sweetie, for loving us without any conditions. For being the truest friend and the sweetest comfort. You’ve left quite the paw print on each of our hearts.