Our Promise

Today I’m going to tell you a story about my old pal, Puffy. Yes, Puffy was my puppy about 8 years ago. Mind you, I was about 10 years old at the time, hence the silly name that always made people laugh when they heard it. Puffy was about two months old when we first got him. He was a Shih tzu Maltese, and the cutest thing I have ever seen.

I still remember that day pretty clearly. We had just gotten another puppy about a week before, it was a Rottweiler. My mother wasn’t happy that my dad randomly brought a puppy home, claiming it was going to be a watch dog. So to make my mom happy (and my sister and I) he bought us a cute, fluffy and energetic puppy.

Ever since then, I couldn’t get enough of him. I loved playing with him or just having him around me. It’s crazy, but I honestly felt like he could understand how I was feeling. Whenever I would be upset, he would always calmly come snuggle up to my foot and then just sit there. He wouldn’t bark or be energetic to show me that he wanted to play like he usually would. He would just sit there to show me that he was there for me. Or that was at least what I would tell myself he was doing.

We had a couple of great years together, but unfortunately, my mom gave him away to a nice co-worker she had, due to him destroying everything in the house. I was devastated and just flat out mad at my mother for doing such a thing. I remember walking outside the day my mother’s co-worker would come pick Puffy up. Puffy was just lying there. He eventually looked up at me when he heard me standing right beside him. For some reason, he just seemed so upset, like he knew it was his last day with us. I sat down next to him and just started crying. I remember saying “I love you and I’ll never forget you. I promise.” And then something crazy happened. He looked up at me and barked. It honestly felt like he was saying it back in a way. A few seconds later, I heard the dreaded “Sabine, they are here! Open the gates.” Not long after that, I saw the puppy I loved for years, in the back seat of a car I’ve never seen before, driving away.

That wasn’t the last time I saw Puffy though. About 2 years later, Puffy’s new owner came over with him and his 5 adorable puppies to pay us a visit. We thought that Puffy had forgotten all about us by then. But the second he saw us from the car window, he started barking as loud as he could. When the car door was opened, he ran straight towards us, and into my arms. He wouldn’t stop barking or licking my face. It was like he was saying “I told you I would never forget you.”