My brother and I begged my parents for a dog (I’m sure I was a little more annoying). We went to the local pet store to fall in love with every dog we saw. We saw one lil’ girl that stole our hearts forever. She was a yellow labrador puppy. About 2-3 months old. I fell in love with her right away and begged and begged my parents for her. My brother did his share of begging too. We promised to each pay half of the cost, eventually. And with lots of batting eyelashes and pouty faces, we took her home.
Boy, was she a ball of energy. And I loved it. We contemplated her name while she ran around in her new backyard. Chase…Molly…Chase…Molly…?
She was definitely a Molly. That was that. Our new puppy was Molly. And ever since then, she was a part of our family. My bedtime blanket at night….My buddy.
Molly LOVED the water. Well, not at first. She was very skeptical. But, give her a boogie board and she was game to do anything. You can see in this collage towards the bottom, there she is with my dad…standing on the board! She loved it. And we loved her, more and more.
The years flew by and my fondness of her grew and grew. I literally considered her part of the family. No really, she was. Molly was often there for me when I felt no one else in the world was. When I was upset, she knew. When I was sick, she knew. When I was happy, she knew (and she was a happy waggley dog). Molly often put up with a lot of my shannigans. One Christmas I dressed her up as a reindeer (with little antlers and a little bow and took cute pictures..see in the collage below). She had to have hated it at the time, but she knew I loved it and wanted to please me anyway she could. Another year consisted of me putting decorative beads on her to give her some nice red color! Again, I’m sure she was miserable but would do anything for me. I would dress her up in my old soccer uniforms and play games with her. She was my buddy. She was my Molly.
You can understand how devastating it was for me to see her get older and just kind of wither away. She had a lot (A LOT) of fatty tumors all over her body that were basically inoperable. She always had a few for years but then they just started taking over her. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t run, she couldn’t be my bedtime blanket anymore. My Molly was fading. My buddy.
In the past couple of weeks everyone knew she had gotten worse and was in a lot of pain and could no longer eat. This had really taken over our dog. She was not the same. She knew who we were and still tried to wag her tail but was very weak and exhausted. And because of the state she was in, my parents had to make a really hard decision today. They knew she would no longer be in pain, exhausted, glazed over. I visited my parent’s house yesterday out of the blue and was told they were going to take her in today. I’m glad I went and got to say goodbye to my Molly. It was time, I could just see it in her face. She was ready. She had a long, happy life and has given our family so much joy over the years. I’ve been pretty upset today but I know she is in a better place, running around, playing with boogie boards.
I know no other dog can replace her but I’m glad we have Matty here during this time to ease the pain of losing her. Molly will always be my favorite girl and I will always remember her like this photo, the day we got her. The day she became my Molly.
I love you, girl.
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