Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: The Family Pet (05/15/08)
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TITLE: My Pal | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mary Lisa
05/22/08 -
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Mom told me that he was very protective of me as a baby and my constant companion. He used to lie on the bed beside me for hours. She said that his presence there kept me from rolling off the bed. She related the story of one day when I was a few months old. I had rolled to the edge of the bed and over the side. Pal had grabbed my baby dress in his teeth and began tugging from the top of the bed to hold me on the bed. Mom heard him grunting and came to see what was happening. She found me hanging on the side of the bed with my dress in the dog’s mouth. He was holding me from falling to the floor.
Pal went through all the baby and childhood stages with me and I’m sure I pulled on his ear uncomfortably more than once but he was always patient with me. Through the years, Pal had endured the indignity of wearing my little sister’s outfits and playing dress up with me. He had too often been ignored when I brushed him aside in favor of spending more time with my friends. As I grew older, I thoughtlessly fed him peanut butter sandwiches to entertain my friends as we watched him struggle to get the peanut butter from the roof of his mouth. That’s not much thanks for his faithfulness through the years but he never seemed to mind. And, he never complained. He was content to just hang out.
When I made time for him, he liked to chase sticks that I threw and run them back to me. We took a lifetime of long walks together while he listened to my concerns of the day. I could confide in him and talk things out for myself. He was just happy to be along and he accepted me without conditions.
Unfortunately, as I was coming of age, he was slowly becoming blind and deaf, and had begun to sometimes mess on the floor, which upset my parents. He had never done that before. We were always buddies and I looked out for him more once his health began to fail him. Then, when we were 15 years old, he disappeared one summer day. I imagined that he just wondered away from the house and couldn’t find his way home.
We looked and looked for him but we never found him. I accused my parents of taking him away without telling me because he was getting so old and disabled. Mom and Dad vowed they didn’t do anything to him.
Night after night, I lay in my bed for weeks afterwards and wondered where he was and what had happened to him. I prayed he hadn’t been hit by a car or lost his life in some painful way.
Eventually, I realized that he wouldn’t be back. I wondered if he had recognized what I couldn’t accept. That it was his time to go and he had gone off to find a quiet place to die.
It was time for me to grow up and learn to live without him. I’m glad he was my buddy all through childhood. Although I didn’t always appreciate the wonderful little spirit that he was, he will always be loved, fondly remembered, and missed.
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