The Best Gift I've Ever Received
“How long do you want to be loved? Is forever enough…Is forever enough?”- the Chicks
Oscar/ our little man,
Seventeen years, however impressive, wasn’t long enough. You were the best gift I’d ever gotten, by far. Everyone dreams of getting a puppy for their birthday as a kid, and the day that I got you, sitting on Grandpa’s sailboat, was one of the best days of my life. I was only eight years old, and you were only the size of a guinea pig haha. I’ll never forget the feeling of joy when you poked your head out of that beige canvas bag. I’d never held anything so small and fragile and precious.
“His name is Oscar,” my mom said. And so it was.
I remember bringing you home from Midland and you cried the whole 7-hour drive, and I cried too because I thought you were unhappy and wanted to go back to the sailboat. We should’ve known then that you would always be a nervous traveler. And when we finally got home to Ottawa, Ohana was waiting to greet us, not realizing we’d be bringing in a new member of the family. While she took some time to warm up to the idea of the energetic little puppy you were, as the years went on, I’d never see a bond so strong. She took you under her wing (and ears) and you followed her every move. It was a beautiful, unlikely friendship.
Oscar, you brought our family insurmountable joy and laughter. From chasing rocks at the cottage, to fetching socks at home, you always found a way to make me smile. You cheated death more times than I can count haha from breaking your back, to seizures, to coyotes, to grand cottage escape… it doesn’t seem real that this time I won’t be coming home to you.
You were my best friend. You never judged me, you never hurt me… and you loved me as much as I loved you (probably not because you loved dad way more and I love you A LOT). I will cherish the days we spent in my room with you as my sole company. We would watch tv and read and you would sit with my while I drew, did homework and played guitar. You were always the best listener and you gave me comfort that I would sell my soul to have right now.
The thing about you Oscar, was you were loving. Everyone loved you and you loved them back. You’d spend nights on strangers laps playing cards. You were the biggest snuggler and bed hog for such a tiny little thing. You never had a mean bone in your body. We never talked, we never argued, we didn’t have a shared language, but I knew what you thought and how you felt and I loved you unconditionally- in my eyes you were perfect, always.
So, Oscar, thank you. Thank you for being everything I ever wanted and needed in a friend. Thank you for teaching me that love is unconditional and that friendship knows no bounds. I promise to remember you in the trees and the grass at the cottage, rolling in the sap and dirt. And in the sunshine through the door where you’d lay in your bed with Ohana. I will always see your face in our front window, as I pull out of the driveway and standing at the foot of the bed waiting to be loved. I’ll laugh when I think about you sleeping in mom and dad’s closet or hanging off of Ohana’s ears, or when you’d come inside on a snowy day looking like a huge snowball. Life won’t be the same from here on out, but I promise to keep you close to me in the ways that I can.
