You'll always have a special and huge chunk of my heart, Coco.
Coco's in dog heaven now. He's cute a lil angel who will watch over me and my family. St. Francis of Assisi will take care of him.
I won't go into the details anymore, it was too painful. And I don't think I'll ever get over this. I will feel better, yes. But this will always be a painful memory that can make me cry like a baby in 2 seconds.
Coco has been with me for a little over 10 years. 10 wonderful years. He didn't ask much. A simple pat or hug from me was all he asked. He just wanted to be loved. He was the best listener in the world, never interrupting or nagging me for my shortcomings. He wasn't that hardheaded and didn't have that I-don't-care-attitude that most dogs possess. He was gentle and patient even with kids. Even it meant that his limbs had to pulled by naughty kids. Whenever he would stay in my room to sleep, he'd wake me up at 5 or 6 am in the morning by putting his face near mine. The first thing I'd see in the morning would be his moist nose and teary paawa eyes. He'd scratch the door or something else when he wanted to go out or something. When he would sleep outside my room, he'd try his best to put the most surface area of his body near the space under the door to get as much as aircon air as possible. He would also wait for me to wake up - just staying outside my room.
He's join me and my childhood friends when we played. Or more like we kinda imposed him to always be the baby when we would play baby-baby or house. We'd slide him using my fisher-price slide and even gave him makeovers. Pity I wasn't that educated at that time that sometimes I may have hurt him physically. Despite it all, he still tolerated them all and showed affection.
I grew up with him. I got him when I was 9 and treated him as a little brother. I just remembered that during that time, my Mom was supposed to have a mother baby when the doctor told us that she really wasn't pregnant at all. I got him from our relative who lived in Bel-air. I thought my parents weren't serious when they told me I was going to have a puppy. It was too good to be true. For the longest time, I've been asking them for one but they always just gave me a dog stuffed toy. We brought a cage that time but I ended up just letting him lie down in the CR-V back seat with me while he drooled out of motion sickness. He was pretty much brown that time with some black. We then passed by Pet Zone here in Banawe where we bought his food and water dishes. He still used them 'till the other day. Got him the Eukanuba lamb rice dog food for him and gave him a diet for him that consisted of 37 pellets each meal time. He at first stayed at my bathroom where all of our dogs first stayed when they were just puppies. He'd palce his head on the step there and stare at me with the most innocent face ever.
He was quite the feisty yet affectionate one. During his early years, he would play tag with me around the sofa table. It was so much fun. He couldn't catch me or yaya. We'd just go round and round. I'd also give him pancakes for breakfast before. Little did I know then that they were bad for him.
My cousin calls him the Human Dog as he doesn't seem like a 100% dog. He's too smart and showed emotions. He'd freeze whenever he knew he did something wrong and would slowly move his way away from you as if he was slowly disappearing from shame. He was and will always be the most adorable thing in the world. I gave him his heart and he shared his to everyone.
Coco converted a lot of dog-haters. These people can testify that they were once scared of dogs until they met Coco. That or they only love Coco.
Coco has also helped us with our problems. He'd just usually listen and offer his nice fuzzy wuzzy fur for you to touch.
He's been sick a couple of times already and I always get stressed and bawl my eyes out whenever it happens. I keep on imagining on what life would be like without him and I'd break down. Just the thought of it makes me cry whenever, wherever, or whoever I'm with. And well, that just happened yesterday.
It doesn't seem that real at all. It's like all of this is just a really bad dream. But it's not. I've been moping around for days and whenever I feel like I feel better, I just cry again. I feel so empty. It's like a huge chunk of myself is with him. I was with him when I was a kid, when I grew confused as a preteen, rebellious and high-spirited as a teenager, and now as an adult. It's like a part of me went too. He was there when I was all confused and when I decided who I was. He was always there.
I went to prepare myself about a year ago when his cough wouldn't get cured when he got well. Then 6 months ago, he got really sick. I thought I was really gonna lose him. But I didn't. God blessed us with a few more months more. And I just know that he's watching right now. Besides, he's everybody's friend and is the human dog after all. He's my guardian angel now. Someday we'll see each other again and play again. For now, he can run and frolic around the nice fields there where he can pee anywhere, have relaxing warm baths, no fleas, and just a world of love.
This is nothing compared to what you have shared with us, Coco. Thank you so much. I love you. We love you.
I miss you Coco. You'll always be in my heart <3