Bailey's Monologue

My heart sank as I heard the words leave my mom’s mouth. I had dreaded this time for all of my life previous to this moment. My initial response was one of disbelief, “this can’t be happening”, I thought to myself. She was just a little sick, how did this get so serious? I sat in the car seat next to my mom as we continued driving home in silence, utterly devastated by the news that my dog had developed cancer.
Since receiving that news, my life was never the same. I was constantly anxious about the day I would have to say goodbye to Bailey. She was the only dog I had ever owned and I couldn't remember a time where the little white ball of fur wasn’t running around my feet, begging for her belly to be rubbed. I couldn’t imagine my life without
Instead, we tried to enjoy our time with her, making the most out of a terrible fate. Bailey got extra treats, extra pets, extra playtime, extra love. She ran and ran and ran after every toy thrown, just as she always had. She tugged on every toy rope she owned, us on the other end trying to hold onto the playtime we were running out of. Every time she jumped on the couch to lay down, you hoped it was on your lap because we knew that we wouldn’t get many more opportunities.
Slowly, over the course of a couple months, Bailey grew weaker. It was heartbreaking to see her become too tired to play, when she used to all the time, despite being the couch-potato that she was. The pain of watching her struggle to do things she used to always do grew exponentially when her movements began to cause her physical pain. Her pain became our
Every time you came home the house felt empty. No wet dog nose, no slobbery tongue, no barking. It didn't feel right to be home and not have to let the dog out, or wonder if she had been fed, or wonder if she was getting into things she shouldn’t be. I wished I would trip on one of her left-out toys just one more time. The emptiness was a terrible feeling and after only a few months, my family decided we were ready to look for another dog to fill the hole in our home. We got a new puppy named Nova and after a while, I fell in love with her. She didn’t replace Bailey, but she made her own mark on my family and still does to this