I woke up one morning on a Thursday in December (2006) to find that my dog buddy, a golden retriever, was not feeling so well. So I went to school that day and came home to find him still with no energy and not eating anything. My mom and dad said that we should take him to the emergency vet down the street. At this point it was really late and I was really worried and sad about what was going to happen. I wanted to go but I couldn’t because of the time it was. My mom and dad told me the next day when I woke up that the vet had said we would have to put him down, but my mom refused to do this that night because she was hesitant and wanted our vet to do this. Another reason was because I wasn’t there!


So that weekend we took him to our vet far out in Walworth. So we loaded buddy up in the back of the car and sill had no energy. We drove for a long time. When we arrived at the vet there was no one there but the people who worked there. It was very quiet and we checked in. Five minutes later they called us in. Our vet, Dr. Druin was standing there with buddy’s folder. About a year ago buddy had to get a surgery on his leg. When we walked in she said she would take an x-ray on his chest. When they came back we took a look through the light. Dr. Druin showed us that there were white spots near his heart. She said it was just an infection, so she would give him a bottle of pills for that to disappear. The next day he was looking and acting a little better than before. Now that we knew that the other vet was wrong, my family was very angry with them. We went to the emergency vet that night hopefully knowing that they were right but they weren’t and they had told us that he would have to be put down. They told us we would never see him again was painful. When we found out that we could have more time with him, it lifted a lot of worries off of our shoulders. For a couple weeks when he was taking the pills I spent a lot more time with buddy, things like playing and hanging out with him. Soon he started to get lazier. Not eating anything, just lying around the house. We got even more worried that the pills were not working anymore. So again we went to the vet and waited for the answers. Dr. Druin had taken another x-ray and this time it was worse. Those white spots were not an infection, they were CANCER! They had spread all other his chest and this time we knew he was telling us it was time for him to go. It was getting late and mostly everyone had gone home but us and a couple veterinarians. I had got a chance to say goodbye. I hugged him o so tightly and then I closed the door and went out to wear my dad was sitting. My mom stayed in there.


A couple of days later, it was hard to come home to nothing. Buddy would always come and greet me. I thought a lot about how hard it was. My mom had thought about getting another dog but never told us. Of course I wanted to get another dog because I am a dog lover. But Casey (my new puppy who is two years old) will never be as good as my first dog Buddy.


Whenever you loose something sacred to you, it’s like loosing your heart. We should always spend time with others because you will never know what will happen next, for those future dog owners and others who love someone.