It’s been awhile since she died, or since I’ve thought about when it happened. It’s hard to think about. I always feel guilty about it, about not being with her for her final moments. It’s just the thought of seeing her lying there hopeless, cold, and alone on a road would have scared me for life.
It was a sunny and hot day in late August. My mom and I were in our beat up Volvo going up to plain and boring Rochester, New York, A.K.A. the middle of nowhere. Honestly to me it didn’t matter where we were headed because I knew that by that night I would have my first puppy. The car ride was extremely long and the only conversation that took place was “are we there yet” and a simple answer from my mom “no not yet” over and over again for six long hours. My mom wanted to stop at gas stations on the way but no way was I letting her make this trip take any longer then it need to be.
We got off the highway and turned on to a long winding, coffee colored dirt driveway. Lonely and deserted, all I could hear was faint dog barks, knowing now that we were only minutes away from our destination. It was only a 5 minute drive from there but to me it seemed like 5 hours full of anxiety and nail biting. My head starting over flowing with thoughts, what if she doesn’t like me? What if she’s a bad dog? What if she likes my sister better?! Finally just in time to stop my negative thoughts we arrived. We pulled up to a small condo with dog houses spread around all over the back yard. After looking around my eyes rested on a little boy sitting on porch steps and in his arms he was holding her! A squirming little black and white fur ball of energy was just begging to be put down. He let her down and she ran to me like we had been long lost friends finally meeting again. She sat right in between my legs and was obviously not going to move anytime soon. I picked her up and looked her in her big brown chocolaty eyes. “Oreo” I said loving the way it sounded then repeating it in my head tons of times. Oreo. Oreo. Oreo. Right then was when it began- a new friendship.
Not long after that I realized Oreo was not like normal dogs. For one thing she never stopped running. Ever. She would jump the 6 foot fences around the yard and run around our yard so much that she left trails. She also would run around the neighborhood for approximately four hours every day. Oreo was so fast that you would never be able to catch her, not even if you ran a 5 minute mile. She was a 30 pound English setter that had and electric collar made for a 150 pound pit-bull. She was crazy, probably too crazy, and because of it she caused my family a lot of stress. Every time she would run away we would always have to race against time to turn off her electric collar box before she would get shocked again. The fences would always get chipped at the top because of her feet hitting it when she jumped over and my dad would constantly be repairing them. My mom would always be taking her to the vet to get the cuts not her feet fixed from hitting the fences and she was just a lot of work in general. After 1 or 2 years when I was about eight my mom finally snapped and started threatening to give her away. I would always worry that one day when I would come home from school she wouldn’t be there.
It was a late October, a Saturday. I was about 9. My family and I were out apple picking for the day, and heading home very soon. As we were getting in the car to leave I glanced up at the sky to see the most beautiful sky I have ever seen to this day. It had all different shades of orange and red complimenting each other as they danced around the sky. Later on that afternoon as we pulled into the drive I thought I saw Oreo running in the neighbor’s yard…I wasn’t going to mention anything though because my family and I had just started to relax after a long week. As usual I walked in and checked the answering machine. The little red light was blink- one new message it read. I clicked replay and the message came on, it was from our neighbors. “I’m sorry but today your dog Oreo got hit by a car on Burr Street and…passed away.” The rest of a message was a blur to me I assume my mom took care of it, since I was a little out of it at the moment. No, no this can’t be happening this can’t be real I thought. Oreo, my Oreo, she’s gone. Forever.
Even though she is gone now and I no longer have her as a best friend I know she’s with me. She taught me a lot in the three short years she was with me. The most important thing she taught me was what it means to have a best friend, even if you can’t keep them forever.