Gone But Not Forgotten

When I read this challenge I knew it was going to be a tough one. My dog Nala was a beautiful little puppy with an unlimited supply of energy. However her life was cut short do to unfortunate circumstances. There was never a dull moment with Nala, even as a puppy when she would bite and pee everywhere, she was too cute to get mad at. She was a tough dog and very loyal, every minute spent with her was a blessing.

It's hard to think of one memory with her that was better than the rest. She used to sleep at the edge of my bed every night. My room was in the basement and if my door was shut she would run down the stairs, run towards my room, and crash right into my door. My door still doesn't shut properly anymore. We first got her at Christmas, it wasn't long before she would pee on the floor. At that time she was about the size of a water bottle, we had a glass coffee table that sat on a wooden stand with a cool design that had small little gaps that she would squeeze through and get stuck in.

I could write about our walks to the creek just down the road from our house. I would throw a stick into the creek and she would run down and jump into the water, than swim to the stick and bring it back for a treat. She loved the water, we used to take her swimming all the time. We also used to take her in the tractor with us when we were working on the fields. She would jump right up the ladder into the cab.

I could also talk about the drives we used to go on, with her head sticking out the window in the wind. I would take her down a back road, let her out, then I drove off and she'd chase after me as fast as she could run until we got further down the road. I could talk about this one time in the winter I took her for a walk through the snow to a bush behind our house. On the way back she ran up a head and hid behind a snow pile. I could see her trying to hide from me, once I got close she ran out and jump up on me.

I could also talk about her jumping on the trampoline with my little brother, or when she would jump in front of the pressure washer when I tried to wash the back patio. I use to play tug a war with her and I bought her these toy ducks that she loved so much they would be in a million pieces by the end of the week. Giving her bath's was also a good memory, she would leave the whole bathroom soaked from jumping out and not wanting the bath.

She also enjoyed playing with other dogs, they would play rough until Nala showed the other dog she was the alpha. I would grab her rope toy and get the two dogs to play tug a war with each other. There was also one time we were sitting in the hot tub and the dumb dog decided to jump in the water with us. She also used to crawl under the porch and get stuck. Inside we had a Roomba and she would be curious of what it was until it bumped into her and she jumped back.

Those are all amazing memories that I'll cherish forever, however if I'm going to write about one specifically, it'll have to be the soccer games I played with her. Yep! You read that right, Nala was a little airbud. I had a soccer ball and I would run around the back yard as she chased after me. It was great practice for quick footwork trying to keep the ball away from the dog. Every once in a while I'd give it a kick and she'd run and get it. The hard part was chasing her down and getting the ball back. Once I finally caught her I would have to hold the ball until she let go with her strong grip as she bite the ball. I guess technically she never used her hands.

We would play soccer all the time after I got home from work. Eventually she popped the ball with her teeth and I had to get a new one but it was worth it. Running around with her gave me a good exercise and drained her of her energy for a couple minutes before she was back to her crazy ways. She loved playing soccer with me and I loved playing soccer with her. As soon as I got the soccer ball out she was running towards me to play. I wish I would've done it more often, sometimes we don't know what we have until it's gone.

I pray that she's up in doggy heaven now, swimming in a lake, playing soccer, and running in an endless meadow.

R.I.P. Nala