Emma the dog

Through out my whole life I have always been surrounded by animals, dogs, cats, puppies and kittens; our neighbors were farmers so I would go see the baby rabbits, calves, baby pigs and chickens, ducks, goats and what not. I saw them being birthed, and in some cases I saw them die.

One pet stood out, she was above all the rest, above average in intelligence and in heart, her name was Emma, she was a little white mutt my brother chose out of many pathetic little pups at the pound shortly before I was born. I came to this world and she was there waiting for me, I played with her puppies, and her puppies puppies. She would be at the front gate waiting for me when I would come home from school, throughout kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and part of my high school, she was there. Arthur (my brother) and I would frequently fight and argue in the evening before bedtime to see whom Emma would sleep with. She was part of the family, but as I grew older so did she, to the point where she was blind and deaf. Once my mother re-arranged the kitchen, which Emma wasn't very found of, since she couldn't see, and was constantly running into the newly arranged furniture. It came to the point where she couldn’t walk by herself, wouldn't eat or drink, every night we thought would be her last. Yet she would be awake the next day.

In the summer of 1996, when I was 16 years old, my brother and I went to the USA to visit our relatives, leaving a very old and weak Emma in our mother's loving and caring hands. Our mother warned us "Emma may not be alive when you return". It was a hot and dry day of August when Arthur and I returned back home to Vicenza after having been gone for 2 months. Once again in the car on our way home from the airport, Mom told us "Emma hasn't eaten or drunken anything in 3 days, she may be dead when we get home, brace yourselves". We got home, she was in the kitchen, she looked more dead then alive, my brother ran to her and picked her up, her little heart was still beating, she was alive! I went by his side and we both petted and caressed her, she wagged her tail and took her last breath, she died in Arthur's arms, as if she waited for us to come home, for one last goodbye.

Here I am sobbing while I write this. This is closest I've been to having lost a loved one, for Emma was much loved, and will forever be missed.