I know some people will not understand why my love for dogs is so boundless, but here is just a glimpse of my reasoning. I have had the utmost privilege to grow up with the best dog I have ever known. He was the goofiest and the most stubborn pup who was always more than willing to go on a new adventure.

The very first day I met our pup, I honestly couldn't believe that this little guy was ours. I thought my dad was tricking me and that he was someone else's puppy. I was about 6 years old, and little did I know that I was making a best friend for life.

As a beagle, he wasn't supposed to be super attention craving, but we called him Mr. Needy for a reason. He always wanted to be right between our legs and nuzzled his nose into our laps the second we stopped giving him pats.

We shared the hatred of thunderstorms and fireworks when I was little (I outgrew the fear; he didn't). We would hide in the piano room and he'd whine while we simultaneously tried to comfort each other.

In elementary school, I had to write a poem for class, and so the only logical thing for me to do was to write about my best bud, Calvin. In that poem, I call him everything from a kangaroo because he jumps up and down, to a vacuum because he always cleans the floor of any remnants of food, to a cheetah because he loves to run really fast around our house whenever someone enters the front door.

When he was a really small puppy, Calvin would be on a walk and would trip over his own long, silky ears because his nose was always to the ground, sniffing out all of the critters that had crossed the same path. And his ears would flap in the wind and he'd look just like Dumbo.

Whenever friends came over, he'd be the first to greet them with a few "menacing" barks and a tail (and body) that wagged a mile a minute. He played fetch with his favorite teddy and whined if he wasn't the one getting attention.

He gave the best slobbery kisses made the absolute best derpy faces. It was always really hard for me to get a very good picture, so within the pictures of Calvin being weird in some way or pulling a face, there are a few gems that came out really well, and some of my favorite silly faces of all time.

And so while I'll never again get to hear the pattering of his footsteps on the linoleum or the jingling of the collar as he runs around the house, I will always hold him in my heart and remember his sloppy kisses and the first time we ever met in the parking lot of St. Christopher's in second grade.

Calvin, I'll love you forever and always,

Alison