Sixteen years ago I surprised my husband, before he was my husband, with not one, but two puppies. We lovingly named them Moose and Otis and they were our first babies. We loved them and adored they with our whole hearts…

And then we had human babies. We still loved and adored Moose and Otis, but they were no longer the center of our universe like they were in those early years. They were fine with this shift, just as long as we continued loving them…which we did.

Moose and Otis welcomed each of our three daughters home from the hospital and kept a watchful eye on them their whole lives. They were loyal companions, who we grew accustomed to always being around.

Three years ago, we lost Moose on Christmas Day. It was unexpected, but at the age of thirteen, we knew he had a good life with us. We weren’t sure how Otis would react. The brothers had never been apart and Moose had always been more of the alpha.

Otis didn’t seem to even miss a beat without his brother. In fact, he seemed to enjoy not being bullied at meal times and while he had spent his whole life watching Moose scrounge for dropped food at meal times, Otis became a scrounger.

In the last few years, Otis had become hard of hearing and perhaps mostly blind. Yet, he still enjoyed sniffing around the yard, eating any crumbs the girls dropped, and curling up in our company. He still seemed happy.

I prayed Otis would pass peacefully in his sleep. I often let him know he’s been a very good dog and he could go any time he was ready…usually after cleaning up one of his many accidents.

Last week, we could tell Otis was no longer happy, but in pain. We had to make the difficult decision to put him down. Sixteen years of him being there and just like that, he was gone.

Last night, Arnauld made rice for dinner. As the girls disappeared after dinner, I was left picking up the kitchen. As I grabbed the last few items from the table, I noticed a scattering of rice where Adi had been sitting. My eyes brimmed with tears. One of the dogs had always cleaned up the fallen rice.

I guess that will be my job now.