.One beautiful day a little boy came with his father to the store, I knew just then that we’d be friends for a long time to come. So there I was being carried away in those little arms to my new home with my newfound friend. Ted’s house was a huge one, with more servants than people living in it. The Jones (Ted’s parents) placed a small basket with an old quilt in it, this was to be my new bed, right next to Ted’s own little bed. Ted’s love for lollypop led to my name, i.e. ‘ lollypop.’ Well, what else can you expect from a four-year-old?
We used to play all day long, fetch the ball, catch – catch is one of my favourite games. When Ted turned six, we started going out for evening walks to Central Park. I loved to go play by the pond with Ted. At times Ted would hurt himself, and I would lick his tears away till he would stop crying and started laughing .after a rainy day, digging near the old oak tree (another of our favourite spots in the park) was great. We were inseparable!! It didn’t matter what we did as long as we did it together. In the nights after Mr. Jones’s bedtime story, I’d climb into bed with Ted the second he closed the door. Ted would cuddle me close to him, and that’s where I slept.
On our trips to the park, I became friends with other dogs too. Being a Pomeranian bitch, it wasn’t difficult to get acquainted with most of the dogs. The old Bulldog, Phoenix, would always get on my nerves. Phoenix believed that man could never be a true friend to a dog, it was un-natural. He’d say that all humans ever thought of us was mere entertainment. I thought he was jealous because Tom had stopped caring for him, like most of the other dogs at the park. Most of the dogs were brought to the park by the servants, and they were jealous for Ted wasn’t like their masters. Those stray dogs, too, would call me names, for they thought I was in love with Ted.
I ask you, would you not love that boy who loved you even when you chewed off his favourite toy soldier? Or that boy who would sneak food from his plate for his dog? Once I got a big thorn stuck in my leg, not only did Ted take it out but also carried me all the way back home!!! So, I did the best thing I could then think of, ignore those good for nothing stray dogs and leave the company of Phoenix, Billy, Cindy, Sandy……..I mean all those dogs who didn’t understand the genuine relationship of a master with his dog.
Life was great until Ted turned eight. Now suddenly, Ted started spending more time with his friends from school after coming back from school in the hope that he’d not go out to play that day. I wished he’d take me along. Soon we went out to the park only twice a week. (You see when you go to school, you have to do a lot of homework and things like that. But like always I go to sleep in the bed with him, though now I slept at the end of the bed.)
Eventually, Ted stopped going for walks to the park entirely. (only because he had homework, which needed his immediate attention) This is the time when the cook's boy Fred started to take me out on my evening stroll. Old Phoenix and the rest of them welcomed me to their so-called club with much sarcasm. They didn’t know Ted, I did. Ted was a kind young boy who loved me, and I was his best friend, who he told every little thing (until he turned 8 that is.)
I spent several evenings by the muddy oak tree wishing that Ted would come out and play with me. Soon I wanted Ted would come out just once to save me my dignity, which Phoenix so easily was making fun of. I continued my routine of wagging my tail and licking Ted when he returned from school, in the hope that he’d remember me as his old friend and companion.
Ted caught the chickenpox and was confined to his room, a room I no longer shared with him, for I was too big to sleep on his bed with him. I had moved to the store only very recently when this happened. I thought I’d cheer him up in his illness, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. I climbed on top of his bed and gave him my famous slurps, but instead of Ted, I knew who’d start laughing, this boy growled at me. I only wanted him to feel better for he was my friend and my Best friend too!! I was removed from the room by Fred, but not before I heard Ted say that I was a problem for him. (But I tell you, he was just irritated by being sick.)
I sat by Ted’s door all through his illness, several of his new human friends came to visit him, and he actually felt happy with them. It was then that I realized, that Ted lived in a whole new world now, a world with no place for me. I had done the best thing I could, I tried to be the best friend I knew how to become. But no matter how hard I try to deny it, but Phoenix was right. Ted just considered me a friend as long as he wanted me around him, to love and play with him. Now that he was sick and before that, his schoolwork took up time – all the time.
I had done my part in the best possible way, I wagged my tail and licked him, spent hours worried over his health, and now when I want to be by his bedside, I am placed outside his door. I have no knowledge of how he is because I am a dog. My feelings and love do not count, for I am not like him because I am a dog. It seems he has grown too old to love his pets.
I had just started to live with the fact that Ted no longer needed me when something happened, which left him speechless. There is a saying which something like “every girl (or bitch) knows how to love, it is her capacity to suffer because of it that increases!” this sums up my entire life.
While coming back from my evening of torture, first Phoenix and his friends, then the stray dog's sarcastic remarks on my illusion of being friends with a human and then the final straw, Fred pushing me in front of a moving vehicle!!!.
Why Fred did this is a mystery to me, but I lost a leg, and the doctor said I was very severely hurt. I needed constant attention if I were to survive. The doctor gave Mr.Jones and Ted the option of having me put to sleep if they wanted. Mr. Jones said that they’d take me home for I was Ted’s pet. A pet he had loved for at least four of his 6 years that he had known me. But you know what? Ted asked for me to be put to sleep!! (For he was too busy with school that taking care of me would harm his grades.) With this decision made by Ted, Mr. Jones asked that I be put to sleep. In an hour, the doctor would put me to sleep, asleep I most probably never wake from. My only happiness this moment is that Phoenix and the rest will not see me in this state. I know I did not do anything wrong by loving Ted if only Ted saw how good a friend a dog could be…
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