Three years ago I lost my best friend. And yes, you can make fun of me, but he was my dog. But let’s be honest. When it comes down to it, at the end of the day our dog is our best friend. (Sorry cat lovers out there).

Anyways his name was RJ. Coming in at about 20 pounds he was probably the biggest Yorkie anyone has ever seen. He was well-behaved when he wasn’t eating shoes, never started trouble and all he wanted to do was sleep next to you. We had 13 long years together until one day it had to come to an end. My poor little puppy had to be put down after suffering organ failure. He fought as long as he could but at the end we knew he was ready so we had to be too. When we knew he was sick my brother was leaving for college, and knew he would probably never see him again and watching him say goodbye was truly heartbreaking. I can honestly say I had never cried harder than I did that day, and I speak for my entire family as well. After all was said and done, nothing seemed the same in my house for a while. It was a lot quieter and no one had the heart to move his dog bed, so it was really difficult to cope. And though most people may think this is dramatic or overly sensitive, it’s not. It is impossible to comprehend the pain in the loss of a pet until you have one.

Now you may be wondering what happened after I lost RJ. After a while we knew we wanted another dog. Not one to replace him but another one to give a home to and love. And that's how we found Remmy. Remmy is also a Yorkie and looked almost identical to RJ when he was a puppy. It was kind of hard at first because it felt weird not having our other little family member in the house anymore but it slowly became easier. Remmy developed his own little personality and found his way into our family and our hearts very quickly. He made things a lot easier for our family and without him life just wouldn’t be as fun.

Dogs are far better than humans. They’re totally innocent, have no cares in the world and all they want to do in life is love you. They don’t care how you look, what you're feeling, or what time of day it is, your dog will always be overjoyed to have you home. They’re more loyal than any person you can think of, and their own personalities make them unique and special, and make them part of a family. Dogs never really ask for much in life. As long as you feed them, take them for a walk and throw them a ball every once in a while your dog will love you more than anything in the world. No matter how angry you make them or get mad at them your dog will forgive you and continuously follow you around. It’s actually quite amazing. Anyone who has or had a dog can vouch for this.

If you don’t understand this, think of therapy dogs. People have dogs for emotional support sometimes, and the presence of a dog as a close companion effects a persons mood completely. And it has been proven that this works. Even in other fields, dogs have been trained to help the blind, the deaf, people with seizures, people will allergies, and even the police force. Dogs are truly incredible creatures. Though they are frustrating at times, chewing shoes, peeing on carpets and stealing food, they steal our hearts as well. Anyone out there who doesn’t have a dog, consider it sometime. And for those of you who have your own best friend at home, give them a treat, they deserve it.