Dear Austin

Dear Austin,

Now that I think about it, I remember a lot of you. I don't remember how we ever came to deciding to get a dog, but somehow we did.

I remember seeing you for the first time at the kennel. You ran up to us with all your friends and cousins, and we picked you. On second look, you actually looked asymmetrical, but we took you home.

We started off as clumsy owners, and I wasn't so allergic to you yet. We had to put you into a cage when we all went to work, because we didn't know any better. Before I went to school, I peeked at you. I remember how you looked at me with your sad puppy eyes, just wanting me to let you out of the cage, those eyes made me cry. I got home as quickly as I could to set you free... into our backyard. Come to think about it, you were such a cute puppy.

A few days later, we felt bad, so we kept you in the garage, but not locked. You had a lot more room to run around in, just without the sun and grass. I came home to find the biggest mess in our garage. You pulled everything out of where they belonged and chewed on many things. We got mad, then laughed.

Eventually, we learned we can just leave you in the backyard while we were away. You never caused too much trouble. Well, you dug up holes after holes after holes. We tried not filling the holes hoping it would eventually get too deep for you to keep digging, but you dug until the tree fell down. We tried pouring vinegar, watered down bleach, hot sauce... into the holes, but you were never afraid. You just kept digging, and digging, and digging, until you got bored of doing that.

I remember taking training lessons with you. Well, that never really worked out, you were such an untrained puppy. I remember you coming with dad to watch our cadet practices and annual inspections, you always got a lot of attention. I remember walking you, and you trying to slip away numerous times. You made me fall once! I remember you bringing us rabbits and rats and squirrels. I remember eating frozen yogurt with you at Steveston. I remember a lot of you.

And then I got deathly allergic to you. We couldn't even be in the same car together, we couldn't even go for walks together. We just stopped hanging out together. Honestly, I didn't care too much when we decided to give you away. I knew you would be better off at another family. I hope you were, I hope you were happy the last few years. Thank you for giving me such great memories through my high school years. You were such a cute puppy. You were the only dog I wasn't afraid of. I will never have another pet again.

Goodbye!

Love, Joanas