The thing I'll remember most, big guy, is how good you looked the day we found you.
You weren't skinny and you didn't even look beat up. No scratches on your nose. No scars or trauma of any kind. Nothing physical, anyhow. You just sat there with your thick orange coat and your paws tucked under you. Watching with the weary eyes of a cornered criminal. Nothing except the realization, maybe, that the jig was up. Your vacation was done. Your days on the streets were suddenly numbered - thirty six to be exact - on this improbable and dreary Saturday afternoon. That's what had you whining, I bet. The unassuming end of it all. Time, place and coincidence all lost on you. That's what had you whining and crying and racing for the staircase. Running for the exits. Looking fr an extension. You were just fine where you were, weren't you? A stranger in a strange alley one kilometre in the wrong direction. Eating out of a stranger's hand. If it was up to you, you would have never come home. I know. I realized that when I called your name. And whistled my last whistle. And stared into the blankness of your eyes.
Turns out we have more in common than even I thought. Me and you and our terrible long-term memories, big guy. So easy to say goodbye.
Now we'll become a part of each other's fuzzy pasts, Pepsky. I'll forget you and you'll forget me. It's okay. Maybe we were already halfway there. I'm not gonna fight it. There's no consolation prize at the end of this life anyway. We just lose little pieces of ourselves along the way.
I'll see you in the eyes of a stranger in another life. We'll walk the alleys, me and you.
You weren't skinny and you didn't even look beat up. No scratches on your nose. No scars or trauma of any kind. Nothing physical, anyhow. You just sat there with your thick orange coat and your paws tucked under you. Watching with the weary eyes of a cornered criminal. Nothing except the realization, maybe, that the jig was up. Your vacation was done. Your days on the streets were suddenly numbered - thirty six to be exact - on this improbable and dreary Saturday afternoon. That's what had you whining, I bet. The unassuming end of it all. Time, place and coincidence all lost on you. That's what had you whining and crying and racing for the staircase. Running for the exits. Looking fr an extension. You were just fine where you were, weren't you? A stranger in a strange alley one kilometre in the wrong direction. Eating out of a stranger's hand. If it was up to you, you would have never come home. I know. I realized that when I called your name. And whistled my last whistle. And stared into the blankness of your eyes.
Turns out we have more in common than even I thought. Me and you and our terrible long-term memories, big guy. So easy to say goodbye.
Now we'll become a part of each other's fuzzy pasts, Pepsky. I'll forget you and you'll forget me. It's okay. Maybe we were already halfway there. I'm not gonna fight it. There's no consolation prize at the end of this life anyway. We just lose little pieces of ourselves along the way.
I'll see you in the eyes of a stranger in another life. We'll walk the alleys, me and you.
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