Get your hankies ready.

Well not my very best friend; that, after all would be my mom. I have to say that because she feeds me, picks up after me, and lets me walk her. She would be upset if I didn’t consider her my bestie.

However, my best canine friend was Ollie. Ollie and I spent many happy hours playing together while we were growing up. Our mommies would get together for coffee or dinner (with lots of wine) and we would be able to run together, jump on each other, and share our toys. Oh, we had such a lot of fun!

Ollie and his mommy lived on Vista which is only a short way from where we live on Barcelona. I know my way there on my own. I just have to go right out of my driveway and when I get to Vista, which is only 4 houses away, go right there and stay on Vista till almost the end.

(This is Ollie, Emma, and me on walking with my human brother, Eric. Ollie is the other Shih Tzu.)

Ollie’s mommy took him to New York for a few months every now and then. Ollie has a human brother there. So when I hadn’t seen Ollie for a while, while we were out walking, I led my mommy right to their house and up their driveway and sat there by their front door. Actually I was sad and crying, as only I can do, because Ollie wasn’t racing to the door to greet me. I was sad. My mommy kept saying “Brady, Ollie is in New York”.  So….. …I didn’t know where New York was. I thought it might be like St. Cloud or Winter Haven, only a few miles away. So I kept taking my mommy there when we walked, but Ollie was never there. “He’s still in New York” she’d say.

Pretty soon, my mom insisted we go left out of our driveway on our walks, she didn’t say why, but I can guess. She didn’t like distressing me because I couldn’t find Ollie.

Then on our trip up to New England we stopped by New York, and there he was, waiting for me in the doorway wagging his tail. We were so happy to be reunited. We ran and played and Ollie showed me his big back yard which is all fenced in. We ran there and played with his canine sister Emma and just had a fabulous time. I sure wish I could do THAT again;

But now I know that will never happen again. My friend Ollie has crossed that Rainbow Bridge; he’ll never again be running to the door to greet me with his tail wagging. I won’t see him for a long while, not till I cross that Rainbow Bridge myself, and my mommy says she hopes that won’t happen for a very long while.

So this is what I think, when I think of Ollie, who will ALWAYS be my best canine friend.