Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

My Best Friend

I looked out the window and saw something that would change my entire life. As we pulled into my driveway, I saw him lying under my van, a big black pup. I got out of my sister's car to shoo him off but instead I was assaulted by friendliest dog in the world. His tail was wagging as his paws were planted firmly in my chest. He licked my faced repeatedly and it was all I could do to push him off me. I told my wife that he must be lost, because he looked too healthy to be a stray. She replied by telling me we didn't need another dog in our lives and I agreed whole-heartedly. I'll just get him some water I said and when I opened our front door, he bounded inside never to leave again.

I said that we'd just keep him until we find his owners, she chided me and told me not to dare name him. We started calling him BD for Black Dog, not really a name, but you have to call him something. How could we find where BD belonged? Well I could put an ad in the lost and found, I could put up flyers, call the ASPCA but I started with the neighbors. I knew my neighbors didn't have a dog but I was hoping that maybe they knew where he belonged. Well he did know something about the dog, he told me he saw a car drive up open the door and push the dog out onto my lawn. He tried to catch the dog but he would just run away when he went to him.

I didn't understand how someone could just abandon this big friendly dog. I went back home to find my wife screaming at BD as he calmly sat in the middle of a once almost finished 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle. This puzzle had sat on our coffee table for maybe two weeks and she would work on it while we watched TV together. It was now almost completely apart and it looked as if BD had chewed up about twenty pieces.

That was how BD came into our lives; he was the very best and the very worst at the same time. The name BD stuck as it just fit him perfectly as he was Black Dog, Big Dog, but mostly Bad Dog. He would destroy something and then look at you with those big puppy dog eyes while he wagged that tail. It would just melt my heart turning my anger to love. He did eventually quit destroying things and eventually he won my wife's heart as well but it was touch and go for a long time.

We had dogs before but I was never that attached to them, BD was my dog or maybe I should say I was his. Whenever I was home, he wanted to be around me and he followed me everywhere. If I were watching TV, he would be right beside me or if I was outside doing yard work that was where he wanted to be. We developed a bond that I'd never had with any other animal. I would talk to BD just as I would a human and sometimes I swear he understood me.

BD, this temporary dog who never even had a real name stayed with us for twelve years and when he passed I cried with a broken heart. I told my wife that this had hurt too much and I never wanted another pet. Lucky for me my sister-in-law wouldn't listen to me and brought me the cutest chocolate lab puppy for Christmas. His name is Jack and although he hasn't replaced BD, he has repaired my broken heart and once again, I have a new best friend.

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