Dear Romeo,

Ever since you were gone, I would sometimes stare at the empty corner that used to hold your crate but now only collects dust. From the things I hated, like your loud barks and howls and your tendency to chew anything in your path turned to the things that I missed. But that wasn’t what I missed, it was you, you were the thing I missed the most.

The first few days of you being gone, I remember going downstairs ready to be greeted by your puppy eyes and all your toys littered across the floor, but when I saw the living room without a single trace of your slobbery kisses and paw prints, it was empty like your crate that sat in the corner of the living room. The living room that I’ve been living in for six years felt empty despite the various couches that surrounded it, all because of you, a dog who entered my life two years ago, was gone.

Though the fur that you entrenched all around the house would never be truly gone, you were gone and that was all that mattered. To me, it’s so crazy how just a few months ago I would’ve never seen myself spending Christmas without you, how I would still cradle you in my arms thinking if you could ever see me graduate high school and watch me grow as I watched you grow, how we would get old together. But regardless of all your stinky dog odor which was erased from the depths of my house, I know that you will never be erased from my heart.

Signed,

Annabella Mi

P.S. I know you’re not dead, but you’re gone.