Memorable Experiences with Animals

I was leaving school after callbacks for the school play, my mind occupied with the minutiae of fifth grade schoolwork (I was suffering from OCD). My brother eagerly told me about the cats (they had taken him out of school to meet them) I was also overjoyed. In the moment I realized “Hey we had been missing out”. Scout was exploring the perimeters reporting back to Susie was under the Christmas tree. We got to name them. We named Scout for his expiration and I named Susie because…welll she seemed like a Susie. Susie would sit on the open dictionary when I was trying to do homework. She licked alot. Scout squeaked. I was delighted. The house felt like it had acquired two new members.

 In 2022, Susie got sick. At the end, she was confined to the basement in her bed, lined with a towel, and two dishes, food and water. She was too weak for stairs and even though she was near her litter box sometimes she didn’t make it. I would go down with her. I pet her and talked to her the way I  had talked to my Aunt Rosemary when she had passed away. I wasn’t entirely sure she could hear me. We all went on a family vacation. Towards the end Dad informed Michael and i Susie had passed away. “When?” I remember my voice cracked. I went outside, walked down the dock and stared at the lake. I didn’t cry but (dumb) I kind of want to now. Susie was so sweet. She loved boxes. She loved licking me. She loved playing in our sheets as we  made our beds. But the most heartbreaking thing is Scout obviously misses her. Every day he goes to all her old haunts- the rug in my Mom’s bathroom- and she’s not there.  Scout is 22 and we all know it’s a miracle and a blessing we still have him. After he passes I will be catless again. Cats make everything better. But no matter how many cats I have, I have Susie and Scout as the gold standard of pets.

I volunteered at a place called Camp Venture where special needs kids would ride horses and I would either lead the horse (around really big clumps of shit) around the barn or walk alongisde the kid to make sure the kid did not fall off.

I have become very close with the dogs of  my friends family. Nyx and Finnie. My friends mom was wondering why Nyx was behaving so strangely and my friend’s dad said “She’s probably pregnant” “She better not be” said my friends mom. Well, she was and Nyx, who is a giant Newfoundland, gave birth to nine puppies. Apparently in the middle of the night. The family separated the puppies from the father by putting them in the laundry room and building a pillow fort. I sat down among them and they all started crawling all over me. They were all black and looked like little Nixes, who nuzzled me while I held her babies. She trusted me (she didn’t let just anyone near her babies). The family and I took turns weighing the puppies, recording their attributes (“diamond scruff” “lightning boots”). I recorded it all on a spreadsheet. One day I texted my friend’s dad to see how everyone was doing and he broke the news Nyx passed away unexpectedly.  Even though I stepped in her diarrhea on my way to catch a bus I really loved Nyx. She was like Susie, a sweetheart. God bless animals.