Saying goodbye

Where do I fit in here? I don't know. I came here just a baby. I am the son of the big dog. The people seem to like me. I made friends with the others pretty easily. Just not him. I was leery of him and he wanted no part of me. I tried to figure out what my role was, where to fit in. Looking back I took some risks and made some mistakes.

My first thing was to focus on the man. He was often outside with us. He would pick up toys and toss them around. No one paid much attention, but I figured out that if I licked up what he threw and brought it back to him, he would throw it again. It was a game. It was fun and it was something him and I had together. This was going to be my niche, being his friend. I would get him to like me best since everyone else like my dad best.

I grew up. I grew up big, bigger than my dad. I started going to the shows and did really well, but still second fiddle to dad. How was I going to change this? So I made my move. I challenged him. I figured I was bigger, I could take him. I walked up to him all puffed up and in my fiercest growly voice said I was there and was going to be the new king here. Well dad wanted nothing to do with this and answered me back. Then the lady intervened, very upset with both of us. But... Dad was put inside and I was put in the pen. And that was where I stayed when he was around. We lived separate lives. I was not allowed near him. My big calculated move had backfired. I was not going to be #1 after all. So I began to refocus on the man. I knew he loved me and I wanted to have some p,ace here. I had an old toy tire that he and I would p,ay with. He would roll it out and I would bring it back to him. We would do this for hours. I loved this.

After a while I thought I could make another move. I was in my pen and everyone was out, even dad. I began to climb the fence to get to them. The lady saw me and screamed NO... But it was already too late, I was over, but not really. On the way down I got stuck. My back leg was caught in the fence. I panicked and yanked it really hard, ouch that hurt. I could not put any weight on my leg. She was so upset. It looked like I messed up again.

I got better , but not 100%. She took me to the vet and I just knew it wasn't going to be good news. I also knew that being a show dog meant I needed to be healthy. So now what? In the car we drove for hours. We eventually met up with people that the lady knew. They seemed really nice and they had a girl dog that seemed afraid, but not of me. When everyone seemed like tit was time to leave, I didn't know what to do. Bt the. The lady took my tire, the one I played with the man with, and put it in the other car. So this was it. I hopped in and began my new life.