Losing a Best Friend

Death is a big taboo. It can be good and it can be bad. People use the terms like "i'm going to kill this workout," or "She dies laughing." those are examples of how we use death in positive ways in our lives. This story is how I lost my best friend. How my life went from the happiest to not knowing what to do next.

When I was seven years old, my mom had a set of twins for another family. This was called being a surrogate mother. In her way of thinking, instead of bring babies home, she got us a dog.

Now my mom is not someone who just goes out and buys something like a dog without doing some research first. With many calls and internet searches later she found Tyson, the french bulldog. He was cream in color and had a teardrop shaped white spot on the top of his head. This dog would soon become my baby and best friend.

When Tyson was brought home he stood no taller than five inches. He was so small. One of the most expensive dogs I have ever owned, at about 1400 dollars. We got him cheap too because she was the last one and the people we got him from were about to go on vacation so they wanted to sell him pretty quick. I was only about seven or eight at the time when we got him. So from the time of my childhood, all the way to my teen years, I had my best friend with me.

He always knew when I was upset and would come jump on me and give me hugs. Tyson was the kind of dog that did not care when you were in his face. You could touch his ears and face all you wanted and he would just sit there. Now his feet that was another story. He would get up and move if you messed with his feet but he was never an aggressive dog.

When Tyson turned nine, we knew he was getting very old and that he wouldn't be around for much longer. It wasn't soon after that he got very sick and had our first scare with him.

He wouldn't lay with anyone and was constantly panting. He was always a dog that had a lot of allergy problems from the beginning since we found out he was allergic to protein at a very early age.

We watched him very closely and took him to the vet. The veterinarian gave him meds to help him get better. He came out of it pretty quickly, so we thought he may have caught a cold as dogs can get that too, just like humans. Later that summer, it was time to get flea medicine and we took him to the vet. The vet gave Tyson the flea medicine dogs take orally not the topical stuff he normally got. This was all too much for his body, as he was too old to process all the chemicals. Tyson was very sick and was taken to the animal hospital, where he stayed over night.

We all were very distraught. Myself and my mom mostly, as Tyson was our baby. He always slept with my mom in her bed and when she wasn't there he came to my room. He was a big baby and never slept alone unless he didn't feel good. I was okay after a couple of day as the doctor found the problem and was going to administer meds to him to help.

I went to school the next day feeling off and like something was wrong. I got in trouble at school for having my phone out and the teacher was going to keep my phone and I yelled saying my dog is on life watch and i needed my phone. This was extremely out of character for me but for some reason I knew I would be needing my phone.

I was sitting in my next class when I got the text from my mom. All she said was "he's gone." I walked out of class. My mom came and got me and I said not one word the entire ride home. I was in disbelief that my best friend was gone. When I got home, I trashed my room the amount of anger I had was unreal. I finally calmed down and then eventually broke down.

Now it is three years later and I still miss my best friend. Fly high buddy.