Posted on: February 2021
Posted in: Personal
June 2007. The day you came home.
Still small enough to carry in one arm.
Learning the yard, one corner at a time.
Energetic, grumpy, and already stubborn.
Ready for another walk, workout clothes and all.
Older now, same jump, different speed.
Thirteen years in, still by my side.
One of the last walks together.
The two of you, together from day one.
Inseparable, even when she was jealous of the attention.
Forever hungry.
A quieter house, before the howling started.
Siblings, until October 2014.
Buffy, who stole the whole family's heart uninvited.
To Argos
It’s been 99 days since the saddest moment I’ve had to live through. At every stage of my life there was always a four-legged companion by my side, and maybe that’s why your absence has hit so hard.
One day in June 2007, the woman who’s now my older brother’s wife brought you home. I only meant to adopt you, but you came with your sister, and Buffy stole the whole family’s heart without asking permission. You both stayed. From that day on we were friends, and my love for you two only grew with the years, a little more for you, since you were the one under my care.
I remember the Pisco earthquake. I was studying, my brother was with you both while you slept on his bed, and suddenly the ground started to shake. We ran out carrying you two, one in each arm, still small enough to fit in a single hand.
We had a full life together: walks, games in the yard, whole afternoons with no plan other than being together. I remember you full of energy, grumpy, joyful, loving. When you were young I’d take you out in workout clothes so I could jump hedges with you, remember that? And you kept doing it for years, just at a different speed, with different strength. I also remember how quickly they’d bathe you so your howling wouldn’t set off the other dogs in the neighborhood.
We lived happily with your sister until October 30, 2014, the day Buffy left us. I still miss her thin little face, her jealous nips whenever I petted you. Over the years you slowly stopped howling. There was no more nightly chorus. I guess the neighbors slept better.
We had more than thirteen years of love before that last day, the hardest one, when I had to decide what was best for you. That morning I went to say good morning and you gave me a hug like never before, one I still carry with me. I saw you happy, walking beside me one last time. You found the strength to fight the muzzle, with that stubbornness that was always so you. And I had to do the hardest thing I’ve ever done: stay calm for you while everything inside me was breaking. In those last minutes, you found the strength again, this time to lick me. And slowly, that beautiful light in your eyes went out.
Argos, despite the sadness of these days, I’m at peace. I know you’re somewhere better, and even though we’re not together physically anymore, you’ll stay with me, in my mind, in my heart, in my soul.
They’ll say I’m crazy, but today I felt you come to wake me up. Licking my face, like always.
