To Our Pets
We’ve all had a first pet. Technically, my first pet was an orange tabby named Jake. I don’t actually remember Jake. There are pictures and I’ve heard stories but I don’t consider Jake my first pet. The first pet of memory is a little mutt named Rags. My parents got Rags around the time my brother Ben was born. She was a cute little dog with the kindest disposition. She never demanding anything and was always well behaved. Rags was a constant. Rags was there for all the major events of our family’s life. She was there when Ben was born, when my Mom gave my brother and me the divorce talk,
My first day of school, when my Mom and stepfather married, when my half sisters were born, Rags was there.
When we’d meet my Mom at the halfway point for holidays, Rags always came with her little “hello” bark and tail wagging. Rags gave you unconditional love. Rags was there when you needed her. Despite all the crazy accidents that shortened the life span of our future pets, Rags lived a very long life. Her last few years were spent on the farm where she enjoyed blindly chasing rabbits and any sound she thought she heard. Eventually her time came. I remember when my Mom told me that Rags had died. Tears in her eyes my Mom said she just walked into the woods off into the woods and died like she didn’t want to burden us. Even after Rags was gone we still talked and reminisced about her. We had our Chags, Buffy, Pickles, Tigger, Tom, Rugs, and bunch of fish but none of them came close to the greatest pet ever: Rags.
Yes, I’m biased. But I hope all of you had a Rags to help you through the tough times. If you haven’t, I hope you get to experience it. If you have, then here’s to your Rags. Whether it be cat, dog, fish or turtle, to those pets that rose to the level of friend.
2 comments:
Lucy was my Rags. She was my first cat - a black cat. She didn't like me very much until my parents divorced but from the day my father left until the day she died she never left my side. She would sit by the front door and wait for me to get home from school. She knew my bedtime and came and found me at that time so we could go to sleep. She'd sleep the entire night with me right next to my head. She died two weeks after my mom and step-dad got married. I like to think of her as my guardian angel. She got me through the worst time in my life and once she knew I would be okay she left me. So here's to all the Rags and Lucy's out there!
Thanks for sharing Keymaster. Cats are completely underrated as pets. None of the ones we had quite reached the Rags echelon, but they were still great friends.
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