Cooper

Cooper

Scars are an interesting part of life, showing where you were physically injured, but the ones that hurt the worst are the ones you can’t see on the outside. Some scars are never visible, one of the worst scars I have is inside. One of my most recent wounds is from when we had to put my dog down. Her name was Cooper, she was a pitbull and pointer mix, she was my best friend since I was five years old. She is the absolute best dog I have ever had. Any time that I was sick she came to lay with me, she waited at the door when I left because couldn’t wait for me to come home, she was there licking my tears off my face when my dad told us he was leaving, she was the number one thing I looked forward to coming home every day. 

Back when we first got her, she was about a year and a half old, she always got so excited to see us any time she was away from us ever since that day. She was always making people laugh and loving on all of my friends any time they came over, she was the sweetest baby. She was a medium sized dog so she was a perfect size, she never bit or growled at anyone unexpectedly unless they were a stranger, she never chewed up anything in the house, she learned very quickly that she did her business outside, she was very obedient all the time unless she was scared or nervous, she was sweet to animals that were smaller than her, and I genuinely believe the only con to having that dog was that she whined in a very high-pitched squeal. She was the best dog in every way possible I swear. 

The reason we had to put her down is because she had a large tumor and it was going to grow more and cut off her airway, so we had to let her go. I felt like my heart got ripped out of my chest and burned it right in front of me. She has been my closest friend for twelve years, the possibility of her really being gone seemed so wrong. She didn’t seem like she was sick or needed to be put down. I miss her more than I could ever imagine. I think the reason dog deaths are so painful is because dogs never do anything impure and if they do, they know it and feel guilty about it. Dogs that are mean don’t know better because they were raised that way, if a dog has the correct owner and is trained the right way there would be no problems. A lot of people get expensive dogs and don’t know how to train them so they end up thinking the dog has issues. Anyways, going back onto the topic of my dog, the reason she became such an amazing dog is because we tried our hardest to be the best owners we could possibly be for her. We made sure to reward her when she did good things or listened the first time. She got a special treat every sunday and she looked forward to it every week, she would get really excited and jump around and whine all loud. She definitely kept our household together after my dad left and took her and Stanley, our other dog who is still alive, with him. She gave me and my brother a sense of home while my mom was in the mental hospital. 

I was never very close with Stanley but I do love him still. He is older than Cooper but he is a small breed so he will live longer. Stanley lives at my dad’s house so when my mom got out of the hospital we took Cooper back. We got a new dog named Willow before Cooper died and they became pretty close. She is a completely different dog but she has perks herself. Admittedly, she isn’t as awesome as Cooper but she does listen very well, doesn’t chew anything up, doesn’t do any business inside, and she’s very sweet. She doesn’t like men so she does bark and growl if a man comes over. We all love her so much and we are so thankful for her because she loves us so much. We’ve only had her for about six months and she’s very attached to us already.  Willow is very funny and has a very big personality. She likes to make us laugh and smile no matter what and she gets super excited when she makes us all laugh. She is a precious golden retriever mix, she’s got thick long fur, and she has a bigger build than Cooper but they still got along and became best friends. Cooper didn’t like Willow a whole lot when we first got her but she warmed up pretty fast. We got Willow originally because we knew Cooper would die soon so that we can have a dog to help us grieve when Cooper did pass.