Yesterday, I felt really depressed...my BFF since kindergarten is drifting away from me because she has a new friend. Guess who it is? THE CAPTAIN FROM MY COLOR GUARD SQUAD! She took away my one true passion in life, and now my best friend!:cry: I can't BELIEVE her. I used to think she was so nice..guess it goes to show how first impressions can be really inaccurate..

Then yesterday, I was wallowing about this when one of my family members came inside from visiting our dogs in their kennel. She said that my dog, Harley, was sick. His tongue was purple, his ribs and spine stuck out (he was FAR from being starved), and he could barely move. I raced up there, but he seemed to perk up when he saw me. He leaned against me and wagged his tail and I thought perhaps she was wrong. But he wasn't himself...he wasn't jumping around or yipping like he always did when he saw me..Harley couldn't get up to eat his dog food, so we held the bowl for him to eat. But just after he started eating....he stopped. He started falling over and couldn't stay up. I raced down to the house for my mother. But by the time I got back up there, it was too late. My dog had started shaking violently and then...died.

We buried him in a woodsy area of the yard, wrapped in a sheet. I held him before he died. I kissed him and told I loved him. Then he was placed in the ground, dirt on top, and that will be the last time I ever see him.

We named him Harley Elliot for two reasons. One was because we got him at the same time my uncle purchased a Harley motorcycle. His middle name, Elliott, stems from my father's favorite Nascar driver at the time, Bill Elliott (and since he's been out of racing for quite awhile, you can see how long we had him.) But he wasn't old. Not much at all. When we carried him down to the house, I was bawling and apologizing to him for leaving him in his pen, for not visiting him enough, for not letting him out more. I cried and cried...and then it was not just for him. I cried for everything...my passion being taken away, my best friend being taken away, and now this. And of course, it must all be sucked up to get last-minute finals stuff done and to pass my Grad Project! I present next Friday...go figure!

Harley was MY dog..my little Terrier-Dottson mix, not real big, and I used to talk to him like one would speak to a best friend. Now he's gone.

R.I.P Harley Elliott.