On the day of May 10, 2003, a little miracle was born into our family with his bright eyes, his hyper personality, and his love for everyone. During one hot summer day, I would have been six at the time, of June 6, 2003, my sister, Olivia, and I were swimming in our blue, inflatable pool. We were trying to see who could hold their breath the longest under water when out of nowhere we saw a small brown image come walking towards us. We both had a better image of the object after the chlorine was out of our eyes. It was a furry, small boxer puppy, named Cain. He was definitely a surprise to both of us. As soon as we noticed what it was, both my sister and I jumped out of our cool pool and landed on the hot, freshly cut grass, and ran to our new addition to our family. Olivia and I both wrapped our arms tightly around Cain’s stomach and didn’t want to let go, we were both so excited, and apparently we weren’t the only excited one in this instance. Cain jumped up onto Olivia and knocked her small body over, onto her back, and licked her face. Every day, when I came home from school, my happy bright-eyed dog Cain welcomed me, at my light brown garage door. He had always been so happy, and he never wanted to hurt anyone. Cain was one of those types of dogs that looked very intimidating, but he had a heart of gold.

Cain’s life was lived to his fullest until one March morning when I had to give him his breakfast. I noticed this bump on his back when he was bent over eating his food. I pressed my hand down on the bump very lightly, and out of nowhere he tried to bite me. He yelped as loudly as he possibly could. My dad ran to the back room where Cain’s food was and asked me if I was okay. I said that I was fine and that Cain should be the one of his concern. My dad noticed the bump on his back and tried to calm Cain down. He pressed his hand onto Cain’s sore, bruised bump, and Cain yelped again. My dad’s first thought was to take Cain to the vet, and he did that the very next day. The vet usually assisted bigger animals, like horses, so that made my family quite nervous about having her observe Cain. She was very abrupt with her motion. It seemed like she didn’t care that he was hurting. She didn’t say much about the bump except that he had a chance of having cancer.

As the days went on, we noticed Cain becoming very lethargic. It seemed as if every time he drank, it was his first. Eventually, he stopped eating real food unless it had liquid beef on top of it. As the days and weeks passed, Cain grew weaker, and eventually he became unable to walk without a limp. He never wanted to get up and do anything. All day long, he’d lie down on his bed in the corner and stayed there. Everyone could see the pain in his eyes; Cain was lifeless. Eventually, Cain’s kidneys began to fail, and he couldn’t get up out of bed to use the bathroom, and he threw up everywhere. It was so hard to see my dog go through so much pain. I just felt so upset and mad at myself for not knowing what to do to help him. I couldn’t do anything.

One day after school, my mom met me in the drive way with terrible news saying Cain wasn’t going to make it much longer. I didn’t know what I was supposed to think or feel. I was speechless. I ran inside crying and began to hyperventilate. Instantly, Cain rose up out of his bed and ran to the kitchen behind the table. Cain had his ears back, sitting all hunched over with his head down. Cain was definitely scared about why I came into the house crying. He must have thought he was getting in trouble. Then he realized I was upset because of how sick he was. He stopped being scared once he noticed me walking towards him with my arms open. When I reached him, I sat beside his body and hugged him tightly, like I did the first day Cain joined our family.

For the last two weeks of Cain’s life, I remember lying down by his bed. I’d lie there just listening to him breath, thinking about when he would take his last breath. I sang to him. I think that he liked the sound of my voice. I felt as if the two songs that calmed him were “Home” by Phillips Phillips and “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus. Those two songs talked about making it through life, even though there are ups and downs during the journey. This was definitely one of the hardest heart aches I have ever been through. What makes this event in my family’s life difficult was that Cain was just like a family member, and we had to let him go.

The day of Friday, May 3, 2013, seemed like any ordinary day to everyone in Ayersville, Ohio, except for our Family. That day was the day we had scheduled to see a vet for Cain. Our appointment was at 4:30 that afternoon, and just watching the clock tick made everyone dread that moment to say goodbye. When Olivia and I arrived home from school, we both knew we only had one hour to be with Cain. We sat down near his bed and cried, thinking about what it would be like without him. Everyone sat there upset and didn’t want to think about it. Therefore, we ended up going to the appointment an hour early.

When we arrived at the vet, we all said our goodbyes to Cain. He could tell we were upset about something. I just felt bad that we had to leave him when we did. He lived almost ten years very happily, seventy in dog years, and I would have been sixteen at that time. I hope that his life is better now in Heaven, and his aching soul can now be set free.