I remember the first time I met Taffy. I was only 10. It was a bad period in my life, when my family was separated. My eldest sister was still in Australia, my other sister chose to remain in San Francisco and my little brother, still in the Philippines with our grandmother. My mother and her new husband drove to San Francisco to pick me up and to finally be reunited. I remember the first second I walked in, there was a little dog barking at me. I was scared at first, due to an incident where I was bitten by a big dog before, but I grew attached to her. I remember petting her at first, letting her sniff my hand and then she kindly rolled over and let me pet her belly. I took her on walks frequently and played with her a lot.. She was the first pet I truly cherished.

Years passed.. Our family reformed, my sisters and brother came together and we were happy. I grew into a teenager, and shamefully.. I forgot to appreciate her. I adopted a kitten who grew up with her, Bluey, who often played with her and my sister's cat, Finn. They would always tease her and slap her around because she was outnumbered. She was such a good dog, she'd just wag her tail.

We kept moving around.. We moved into a not-so-good place and her health began to dwindle. She was getting old.. She wasn't getting out as much and she wasn't eating as well. Finally.. we moved into our home which we're in right now, where she could have all the room she wanted to run around in.

Sadly.. Only after a month of moving into our new home, she began to lose weight. She stopped eating, she would have frequent accidents and she went blind. Her health was receding and we could see her getting thinner. I still didn't pay much attention to her.. The most I did was tell my stepdad to take her to a vet to have her treated.

One day, she was laying down.. I petted her. She wagged her tail and lifted her head, only to collapse back into the position she was in. She was near my room so I decided to call her in so she could sleep on a pillow. I kept calling her name.. "Taffy! Taffy?" and she would do nothing. She would just.. wag her tail. I finally decided to carry her inside and place her on the pillow, where she licked my hand and looked at me with those eyes that couldn't see the tears that were pouring from my face.

A week later.. Now, November 15th, 2007; we had her put to sleep. It was too painful for my stepfather to watch her. She was his therapy dog during the time his 2nd wife died, before he met my mother. I can only imagine the aching his heart is going through.. The most upsetting part is.. I came home from school looking for her and didn't find her.. so I just expected the worst. I didn't mourn, I didn't cry, I didn't want to miss her. My mom came home from work, crying. Explaining how Taffy put her head on her hand as she was getting injected with the lethal dose of whatever it was to put her to rest. I cried. I mourned. I'm writing this, still crying. I miss you. I wish I could have said goodbye to the kindest, loving and wonderful dog that I will ever have come across. I miss you, I love you. I knew you knew that by the way you would wag your tail whenever I would call for you. We'll always have room for you in our hearts, Taffy. I'm glad you're joining Phoebe, maybe she'll annoy you as well as Bluey and Finn did.

Goodbye Taffy, until we meet over the rainbow. <3