Things That Take a Piece of Your Heart

(Phoebe Langley, age 13, December 2008)

The pup that chose you nearly 14 long years ago, who must have been in pain, but never let on. The pup whose tail never stopped up until the very end, who never growled, or snapped or ever entertained a bad mood. The dog who followed you from room to room for so many years that you stopped noticing it until today ... when you no longer heard the click, click, plunk that you had grown so dependent on. The smart and intuitive dog whose soft brown eyes were the first waking thing you've seen every day except when you were away. The dog your friends said was uncanny in her similarity to you. The dog you named Phoebe after the songwriter Phoebe Snow, and the Greek word for "bright" or "radiant," and who honored the name with every silvery hair on her body.

Good-bye my little love. There won't be a day that passes when I won't remember the way you made me feel so unconditionally loved.