We got Nala in 2012. I was 13 years old. My dad had promised me that if I got my wisdom teeth out, I could get a dog. A few weeks later, while shopping at PetSmart, I saw her and gasped at how cute she was. She was perfect. We took her home the next day.
It was the summertime, and my parents were divorced. I remember my mom would bring me over to my dad’s house at 5 in the morning on her way to work so I could see my new puppy. We spent many mornings together playing and cuddling. We were kids together.
She watched me through my teenage years, and she was the first one to greet me at the door when I came home from college. She was there when I moved on from middle school to high school, when I graduated high school, when I graduated college, moved into my first apartment by myself, and bought my first house. She even got to spend time with the dog I adopted as an adult, which I never would have had the courage to adopt had it not been for our 5 a.m. play sessions and all the things she taught me about puppyhood.
We grew up together. As I grew older, so did she, but she aged much faster than I did. We made the decision to euthanize her in May 2026, before her tumor caused her any more pain. This is when she taught me how to love an animal so much that you let them go when the time is right.
I hope that she knows how much she taught me, how much I love her, and how much I’m going to miss coming home to my dad’s house and hearing her bark for me at the door.
Nala was the best part of being a teenager and the best part of coming home. We grew up together, and I wouldn’t have the life I have today if it weren’t for her. She spent her whole life loving my dad and me, and we’ll spend the rest of ours missing her.
