Remy

I never expected to love anything as much as I did the minute that I met Remy. The day feels like the first day of my real life, like everything before it was just a dream, that every memory that led up to that day was just imagined. It is so interesting to think about how quickly your life begins to matter- that your heart feels whole when you didn’t even know that it was missing a piece before that moment. That is exactly how I felt thinking about the moment I met Remy. His short fawn coat, soft brown eyes, and floppy ears made up the perfect image of the dog that I once dreamt of having.

It was September 10th, not a single cloud in the sky as the sun blazed above my head. The parking lot to the humane society was lined with large oak trees covered in Spanish moss that provided a subtle relief from the Florida heat. I walked up and down the rows of dogs all in their kennels that had nothing more than a roof to keep out the rain and a few large fans to push the hot and sticky air around. All the dogs jumped and barked, all so adorable but none that felt like they needed me. In the second row, the third kennel down there he was. Sitting polite and poised a few inches away from the gate. I stopped and got down to his eye level. Now kneeling I looked into his eyes and his tail wagged slightly on the cement floor. At that moment I knew there was something more to him. At that moment I knew that he was there for me and I think he sensed it too. My fiancé wanted to see what other dogs were in the other sections but the minute I walked away from Remy my heart pulled me right back.

“I can’t stop thinking of that one dog,” I said.

After a few seconds, we walked inside and asked to meet him. The minute that he left the kennel he jumped right to me. Licking and pawing excitedly at me as if he knew that he would be coming home with us. It was at that moment that I knew that this was the dog I was meant to have. Like a soul contract between the two of us, we were meant to be living life together.

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Years have since gone by. I now can’t remember a single memory that Remy hasn’t been a part of. It even feels like he was there for the memories I knew that he wasn’t, the memories that he wasn’t even a puppy yet. Six years, four apartments, two houses, and twenty-eight hundred miles spent together now and there isn’t a day that goes by that I am not thankful for the hot summer day that something called me to the humane society. Something in the universe pulled me to him. There is a bond between a person and their dog but I don’t believe that everyone feels that their dog was put in their life to save them. The days that went by when the world was crashing down around me he was there to let me hold and cuddle. The days I needed to vent about anyone and everything he was there with a listening ear. The days that everything fell into place he was there to celebrate with. Between every small win and huge loss, he was there to get me through. There isn’t a day that goes by I am not grateful for the journey that every day is with Remy by my side.