Jerry was around for about a year and a half before I was born. He was my parents first “child” and we always knew that he was the favorite. He was the perfect companion. He was a cockapoo, but he definitely didn’t have much poodle in him. He was not the brightest dog. But he was incredibly loved. When he was a puppy, he had parvo and was very sick. My parents spent a lot of time and money to make sure that he would be okay. He was too important to them to let go. He was the most tolerant dog, especially when I was a toddler. I didn’t know how to properly pet a dog, so I would pull on his fur, and he would let me. He was so gentle with me when I was small, and he was the same way with my sisters. He was around to see all of us grow up, and he stuck by our side through all of it. He was truly a gentle soul. He cared about us and found it to be his responsibility to protect us from any danger, (including UPS drivers and neighbors walking their dogs). Once, when I was young, he thought the mailman got to close to me and went ballistic. Other than that, he was perfectly mellow. When it came to his family, he would have done anything to protect us.
Jerry was the first dog I ever loved. He was there when I got home from the hospital as a newborn, all the way until I was 16. He was there when I learned to crawl, walk, and talk. He was always waiting for me to get off the bus after school. He was the first one to greet me after a long day. They say that actions speak louder than words, and Jerry is the perfect example. In middle school, when things were tough, he would lay with me when I cried and stayed until he knew I was okay. He would play with me, even when he was old and too tired. I watched Jerry as his health declined, and my heart broke a little more every day. He knew he had to keep holding on for his family, but I could see that he was tired. He saw that we were hurting for him, and that’s when he knew it was okay to let go. Jerry was the perfect dog. Soon after he died, we found a dog at an adoption center with the same name that my mom had almost named him. Howie. I know that Jerry couldn’t stand to see us suffer without him, so he made sure to send us a dog that is just as loving as he was. I miss my boy every day, but I know that he is eating all the chicken he could possibly want and running around in endless fields of grass over the rainbow bridge. Please, please, please, go pet your dogs. They are the purest souls that the world has to offer, and time with them is limited. I wish I would have cherished my time with Jerry more. I know he cherished his time with me.