Zooey-you were my first ever best friend.
I came home from Russia as an infant to meet you-a beautiful sweet American Eskimo. We hit it off immediately-I don't know if that was because Izzy, your sister was willing to bite me-which she did-and Sasha our cat-stayed clear of me too.
Either way we became best friend. I remember every night you would lick my feet after I took a bath. I don't know why you did but it became a bedtime routine of ours. And I always remembered playing tug of war with you with your "grrrr" toy. We called it your "grrr" because that's the sound you made when we were playing with it. It wasn't very original-but it was what we called it.
You were so sweet too! Whenever my friends came over we would always play with you-sometimes we even dressed you up. I have a picture of you me and one of my friends smiling with one of my scarves over your back. You're looking at the camera almost as if to say "Help me" but you were such a good sport. You never bit anyone, never snapped and were like a babysitter almost. No matter what we threw at you whether it was dressing you up or my friends petting you a bit too roughly-you were always a good sport about it. You somewhat reminded me of Nana the St Bernard from Peter Pan.

And then we met Mama. And instead of five of us (Me, Mommy, Sasha Izzy and you) there were now eleven of us! Mama soon brought her five shelties and that was the start of our pack.
But soon after the packed formed--you got sick. Kidney failure. I didn't know at the time for I was only six but I remember the night you went to Rainbow bridge. I cried all night-I cried myself to sleep. You were my first best friend and you were the first of our pack to leave.
To lose you was the first loss I ever experienced. It was heartbreaking. I didn't know exactly what had happened but I knew you weren't coming back. And that broke my heart.
You are always in my heart. You will always have a special place in my heart. You were my first friend. I miss you every day. Now as an 18 year old I look at the pictures of us and smile. Though I was young and my memories of you were from when I was only a young child of 6-I always remember our amazing friendship-my first every friendship.
I miss you and love you. Forever and always.