I rolled on the floor of my parents room as all laughed at the humorous show. The room’s bubbly vibes soon dropped as my puppy, Brady, stumbled into the room. Our laughs were soon smothered by concern, and we could hear Brady’s deep heaves of breath. We all looked at each other, the same sympathy in our eyes for our struggling dog, and knew at once some thing was not right.

Monday morning came fast and my brothers and I woke to an empty house. My dad had left for work and on the kitchen counter was a note in my moms hand writing. I am taking Brady to the vet to get him checked. I’ll be back soon with breakfast.-mom. I put the note down not thinking worrying about Brady, thinking oh he’s fine!
When my mom came home she was alone. Her facial expression worried as she sat us down. She then informed us that our 1 year old puppy had been diagnosed with Lymphomas Cancer and had to stay at the pet hospital over night.

Days went by slow and nights seemed awkward without him there like we were missing something. Wednesday night my mom came home from visiting Brady, as she entered the house we could see her cheeks wet from tears. Tears filled her eyes as she stuttered.” He had his sides shaved with I.V.s all over him…. He just looked at me and his eyes we screaming take me home!” we all felt sympathetic towards the sound of our sick unhappy puppy. He wanted to be home, and we wanted him home.

It was Thursday, August first, and I could hear my dad’s car pull into the drive way then after a few minutes his voice , loud but scratchy, call my brothers and I down stairs. I ran to my room to change out of my pajamas before I went down stairs. I opened my door in a hurry knowing that my dad would be waiting for me. As I stepped out of my room my hurry came to a halt at the sight of my little brother, Kevin. I stood extremely still and watched him carry himself up the stairs, his body hung over and head facing the floor. He lifted his head slowly as if it weight 100 pounds just enough for me to see his face. I could see his blood shot eyes over flowing with pounds of tears. His cheeks were res and hot. His nose pink as he sniffled and let out sobs. I could hear him gasping for breaths as running tears hit the top of his flushed cheek. I thought to my self, what could possibly be putting him through this my pain? And my breaths became short as I connected the dots. My parents had left to check on Brady and now Kevin is crying. As I took a step towards the stairs Kevin saw me and our eyes met. His water filled blue eyes looked sad and alone. Though I didn’t know for sure what had happened the pain in Kevin’s eye assured me it wasn’t good.
Kevin passed without a word as worry shot through my body. As I slugged down the stairs I saw my dad’s blushed wet cheeks. This was the first time I had ever seen my dad cry and that made my worry sky rocket. I could feel the anxiousness flow through my veins. I shut my eyes and could barely speak. “Is he okay” I finally squeezed out. I opened my eyes as I tried hard to hold back tears that were dying to run. My dad slowly shook his head no. “ Is he dead?” I said softly, half knowing the answer but thought if I didn’t hear it then it wouldn’t be true. The second of silence assured me I was sadly correct and my dad pulled me into his chest. At the same second my strength had disappeared and the tears ran free out on to my face, as I tried to comprehend the situation. I would never again see my puppy. The same puppy I had held less than a year ago for the first time, and the same puppy that lie sleeping in my lap the last weekend. My puppy was gone.

That night we were at our family friends' house and Caroline and I were sitting up against the house watching her and her cousins dogs run in circles. As she tried to comfort me I said with crushed hope in my voice “I can’t believe he’s gone. We barley had him. There’s so much we never got to do.”

Later that night we got a call from our breeder who felt awful about the situation and offered us a new dog free of charge. As she talked about the new puppy to my family, I thought to myself. I have to love this dog twice as much for Brady. Spend twice as much time with it for Brady. I would do what I could never be able to with Brady.

That weekend was our family reunion. As we walked into the lake house bed room flash is of the year before popped into my head. This was the same place where our parents had told us we were getting Brady. It was this day when we found out that we were getting our puppy. The puppy that we would never see again. But more importantly the puppy that taught us how to appreciate life.



Brady
2007-2008
Life can be great if you live it to the fullest no matter how short it is and Brady taught us all that important lesson. Brady was later taken to UCONN where he was inspected. Doctors and scientist were trying to find out how he possibly cold have gotten this cancer at such a young age. He is now buried at UCONN.

On October twelfth my family and I picked up our now 1 ½ year old puppy Reilly. Who is a happy and healthy dog. She got her name from the old Irish saying
“The life of Reilly”. we picked this because besides the last few days of his life, Brady really has the life of Reilly