A Love Letter to the Dogs We Got in Our 20’s

Dear Zoey,

I’m already crying. You’re sitting next to me on the couch where we do our morning snuggles as I write this letter with tears streaming down my face.

I was 24 when we brought you home. Just a baby myself. I had no idea what I was doing and was clueless to the responsibilities of caring for a tiny puppy…especially one like you lol. You were and always have been a wild one with a mind of your own. Just like me. Every quirk and ailment you’ve experienced oddly mirrored my own in a destined kind of way. Your dad has always said you are my “soul sister”. We have the type of understanding that defies earthly laws. Dad and I were in our second year of dating and had recently moved in together when we brought you home. Two big adjustments at once. I don’t know what we would’ve done without him those first few months. You refused to sleep in a crate and would strategically go in my closet to poop in my shoes (and only my shoes) as I got ready for work in the mornings. I’ve always appreciated your ability to communicate lol. He reminded me often that this phase would pass and one day you’d sit still for more than 30 seconds and allow us to sleep through the night, he was right.

You taught me what it meant to love unconditionally. I learned responsibility and grew up through loving you. You’ve seen me in the highest highs and the lowest lows. It’s wild to think that you’ve witnessed more of me than most other humans ever will. You were born into the most sensitive little body and we’ve had a lot to overcome, but it has taught me so much about patience and given me the opportunity to love myself more closely to the way I love you.

We’ve lived in many places together. All of which you’ve found your favorite cozy nook to declare your own. I still hope we find our dream property in this lifetime together so you and dad can look out the sunroom into the woods every night.

This year you’ll be 10 and I’d be lying if I said I don’t think about your age almost daily now. Knowing that the magnitude of love will likely be equivalent to the pain one day makes me cry instantaneously. It will be forever worth it though. Your dad and I have made a pact that we won’t dwell on that as you get older because it will take away from being present in all our many days together. So we celebrate the fact that you’re almost 10 and act like you’re 5. We celebrate the mornings you wake up early and run to greet us or stomp your feet and bark to let us know you’d like to go outside or on a car ride. We celebrate that I still get to obsessively smell you because it’s the best scent in the whole wide world lol.

I didn’t have a clue what we were getting into the day we brought you home, but you’ve given us more than we could have ever imagined.

To the dog’s we got in our 20’s…thank you, thank you, thank you.

Love you forever and always,  Z girl.