When I met Millie Rose, she was timid and anxious. During her first night at our house, she sat on the back porch at dawn and stared emptily into our backyard processing it all. She didn’t bark, growl, or even sneeze for probably at least a month of living in our home. Each day, Millie Rose’s personality revealed itself more as her anxieties left over from living in a car, animal shelter, and a foster home dissipated. She loved chasing her tail and could actually catch it in her teeth. After eating something she especially enjoyed, she rolled on her back in happiness. She loved laying on the couch before my younger sister and I left for school and my parents for work. Her heart disease eventually caused her difficulty breathing, but her panting always looked like a smile.

As people grow, their needs change. When my sister and I were kids, we needed a dog who was a playmate, an ever-loving and non-questioning companion who we could count on to be there at the end of the day. The amount of patience dogs have is remarkable. Living with my sister and I growing up meant that Millie Rose’s front legs were frequently threaded through the arm holes of a child-sized sweater. It meant that we tried training her to jump through hula hoops and to play fetch. We dressed her up in princess costumes and even “married” her with our grandparents’ labrador retriever. Millie Rose was never harmed in these endeavors, but they probably wouldn't have been her choice activities. Yet she went along with them anyway.

As dogs grow, their needs change, too. With old age, Millie Rose became increasingly dependent on us. She needed special food that her old teeth could handle, required carrying down the back porch to go outside, and had a long list of medications. She had frequent accidents in the house, she coughed constantly in the middle of the night, and her stomach was easily upset. Her liver failure and heart disease slowly got the better of her. Having an old dog in the family is a tremendous amount of work, but by that point, she had showed and taught us true patience, love, and acceptance.

In her early years living with us, Millie Rose seemed to understand that my sister and I were kids and that, because of this, we needed a playmate and simply a loving, furry friend—this is something that she accepted. She remained patient when we brought her along with us in our childhood adventures, and she showed us how to be patient when loving someone becomes more work than we had perhaps anticipated. By the time she grew old and sick, we understood that Millie Rose was nearing her final days, so we accepted that she needed a lot of special care from us.

Millie Rose always seemed to understand that being family means loving and caring for each other through all stages of life. Loving unconditionally means understanding someone's current stage in life and accepting what they need from you as a result. After my 11 years with Millie Rose, I can confidently say that she made me into a more patient and understanding person. Dogs have a special way about them—they effortlessly embody qualities we wish to see in ourselves, and their displays of these qualities motivate us to do better and be better. If Millie Rose had a purpose in her 16-year life, maybe this was it.