Unlikely Love

This is not a story based on the prompt

This is a eulogy that I never made, to the friend that will always hold a place in my heart.

For all of those who have never been heartbroken by the lose of a pet, you are both blessed, and completely missing out. I pity those who don't have a dog living in their hearts.

My Tissue lived 16 long years. She was there for my entire life, through everything I ever went through, I knew that as soon as I came home, a bouncing schnauzer would greet me at the door. People often think that pets don't matter, we spoil them too much, and they don't actually love us back. They have never felt the happiness of seeing a dog wag their tail at you through the window, or felt that joy of taking a dog on a walk, or the exhaustion after hosting a puppy playdate...or the sadness after losing your best friend. They deserve to be spoiled. When you look at a dog, you truly see someone who will love you with such, unconditionality...it is the closest thing a mortal being can get to loving like God. They look at you with eyes brimming with love. Eyes that can stare into the depths of your soul and somehow see and know everything going on in your life.

That is how my dog looked at us. She didn't judge us, she didn't compare us to others, or hold thing over us. Tissue spent 16 years dedicating her life to playing, and loving. She was a puppy up to the end. Even as an old, blind, and deaf old dog, she would sprint around the yard ears laid back against the wind. Our rabbit, our little Tishy-cat...The day before her life was over, she ran circles around our yard, chasing an invisible hare, jaws opened, eyes glinting, feet going as fast as they could carry her.

She curled up in our laps, her diaper scratching against our legs, exhausted after using up all her energy. I had never known a day without her. I tormented her when I was a baby, her only two. I played and pranced around with her as a child, and I slept with her, and gave her a bath almost every day as she grew older, weaker, sleepier, more incontinent.

Yet still she would find the energy to make us laugh as she danced around the living room reaching for her toy as it dangled just out of her reach.

I thought I would let all who have lost a pet you were close to know, that it probably won't get easier for a while. They are always there living in your heart, occasionally waking up and wagging they're tails...I mean, wouldn't it hurt to have a dog or cats tails beating against your chest? I wouldn't be who I am today without my dog. I love her so very much, nothing will ever replace my Tissue.

I suppose this really is based off the prompt. As a child I never knew how much I would grow to love this dog that would run away from me as I chased it down with my grubby hands, pulling its tails and running my hands through its soft fur...I never knew the joy and sorrow that would come out of knowing this dog. I fell in love with Tissue. She will forever hold a place in my heart.

I am going to share a poem I found that made me burst into tears. I hope you find it comforting, or enjoy it as much as I did.

“Some of you, particularly those who think they have recently lost a dog to “death”, don’t really understand this. I’ve had no desire to explain, but I won’t be around forever and must for those out there to finally understand.

Dogs never die. They don’t know how too. They get tired, very old and their bones hurt. Of course they don’t die. If they did they would not want to always go for a walk, even long after their old bones say “No, no not a good idea. Let’s not go for a walk.” Nope, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might get one step before their aging tendons collapse them into a heap on the floor but that’s what dogs do. They walk. You see, a walk with you is all there is. A walk with their best friend and the symphony of odor that the world is. Cat poop, another dog’s mark, a rotting chicken bone and you. That is what makes their world perfect and in a perfect world death as no place.

Dogs just get very, very sleepy. That is the thing you see. The don’t teach you that at the fancy university where they explain about quarks and economics. They know so much there that they forget that dogs never die. It is a shame really. Dogs have so much to offer and people just talk too much.

When you think your dog has died, it has really just fallen asleep in the world and now lives in your heart. And by the way, it is wagging its tail madly, you see, and that is why your chest hurts so much and you cry all the time. Who would not cry with a happy dog wagging its tail in their chest? Ouch! Wap, wap, wap, wap, wap, that hurts. But they only wag because they are so happy to be so close to you.

Whenever they wake up in your heart they wag their tail. After a few dog years, they sleep for longer periods of time and you will too. They were a GOOD DOG all their life and you both know it. It gets tiring being a good dog all the time, particularly when you get old and your bones hurt and you fall on your face and don’t want to go outside to pee when it is raining but they do because they are a good dog. So understand that after they have been sleeping in your heart, they will sleep longer and longer.

But don’t get fooled. They are not “dead”. There is no such thing, really. They are sleeping in your heart and when they wake up, usually when you are not expecting it. It is just who they are. I feel sorry for people who don’t have dogs sleeping in their heart. They miss so much. Excuse me, I have to go cry now.”

Tissue, may you rest in peace in heaven. You were a very good dog. I will never forget all you did for us. All the love you so selflessly gave. You heart my heart every day. I will see you again someday.