A memorial to a friend

Advanced warning-this post does not have anything to do with writing or my books, you can absolutely skip it if that's what you are looking for.

I'm about to do something very uncharacteristic for myself; I'm lifting the veil for one post.

Hi, I'm the actual person who writes these posts, the author, and very human individual who tries to share helpful interesting content on this page. Why am I pulling off my "professional facade" for this post? Because it's not just about me.

On October 19th my first ever puppy, best friend, and the closest thing I've ever had to a sister died. Her name was Spirit. If you will allow me to break formula, I would like to take this week to dedicate a post to her

If you've read my first post, then you already know a little about my sweet puppy, Spirit. By definition, she hasn't been a true puppy for over a decade, but that is always the way I will think of her. As a matter of fact, she was over 13 1/2 when she died and had lived with my family for almost exactly a month short of 13 years.

When we first adopted her, she was not what I expected. She had some unknown traumas that caused her to be quite timid for the first year or so, and even after that, certain things made her quite anxious; yelling, thunder, and loud noises, in general, could stress her out quite badly. We butted heads for a while, with her being only about 9 months old when she first came home with us, and I was still an (occasionally obnoxious) child myself, making for a heck of an adjustment period for both of us.

After that first year, however, we became the best of friends. We would play fetch, cuddle together, and all of those things. She even slept in my room every night. I learned patience, positive reinforcements, to end tricky tasks on a positive note, and how to teach dogs by teaching her basic tricks. 

She learned to come to people for comfort when she was scared rather than hiding herself, by learning to trust our family. When she was stressed I would try to comfort her, and in time she even began to come to me, rather than my parents, when she wanted this.

She was the best friend you could ever hope for. No matter what was happening, she was there for me. Even on the worst days of my life, she would sit with me as I cried and listen when I told her how unfair life was. She always kept my secrets, and if she ever judged me, I certainly never heard of it.

It's no secret that I don't have any sisters, but Spirit was like a little sister to me, and I think that's how she thought of our relationship as well. She knew exactly how to press my buttons, and seemed to delight in doing so, ignoring me when I called when I knew she could hear me, but I loved her with my entire heart.

I knew she was getting old, but with white fur, it was pretty hard to gauge how old she was for quite a while until she had a major health scare and started to really slow down. Yet, still, she loved to be cuddled, spoilt, and go on walks, though they were now limited to going to the mailbox and back. Even then, she was still, every inch, my puppy.

I am truly grateful to God, to be able to write that Spirit did not suffer but passed peacefully in my arms. After all, that's all you can ever ask for. But I miss her with my entire heart, and I always will.

I love you girl, and I miss you. Your sister in heart, Kat.