Thank You, & See You Later, Miley

I wasn’t allowed to have a dog at my parent’s house as a kid… So I moved out and adopted Miley the very next day.

Miley saw me finish university, start a career, buy my first condo, lose my dad, lose my first job, get what I thought was a dream job (lost that too), buy my first (and second) house, buy my first car (and the next three), go self-employed, and so much more.

I thought we were writing the story of a boy and his pup. Then I blinked and it was the story of a man and his dog. Then I blinked again, and I realized I had been wrong all along.

We weren’t Super Mario and Yoshi, she wasn’t my side-kick. We were Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn: We were two kids each on our own adventure, each writing our own stories.

Miley’s is the story of an overweight, out of shape, neglected pup. A pup who had to go through three different owners in her first couple years, just to find a sad, skinny, young human who could see through her faults and her seizures and keep her forever.

The story of a dog barely able to walk a block when she finally met that human, bit by bit dropping ¼ of her weight, and the two of them going on twenty-minute runs together every week just a year later.

The story of all the things she would learn from and teach her human, all the places they’d go, all the people they’d love, all the silly things they’d do, and all the places they’d call home for thirteen years together.

This whole time I thought of us as one story, until last week. On Tuesday May 21st, Miley taught me that this wasn’t our story, it was hers. The sun set on my best friend. Her story ended.

Missing her hurts, but I’ll be eternally grateful that I got to play my part in her story, and be with her all the way through until the very end. She was fifteen years old, maybe more, we’ll never know.

In the epilogue Miley tries to teach her human one last lesson: how to say goodbye… I’m still trying to figure that one out, so for now all I’ll say is… Thank you Miley. You were the best girl. I’ll see you later.