Continued . . .

All his friends were softly crying. Oh no! Was this master going away too?
What was I going to do? I was no longer the cute little puppy everyone liked
to pet. I was nearly 8 years old. Gray was beginning to show along my muzzle.
I still liked to play and run after my toys, but now I tired sooner. What was
I going to do without my beloved master? We had been together so long and
had been through so much. We had shared happiness and the terrible loneliness
when his life partner and our friend died.
I glanced anxiously between my master and his friend as she looked down into his tearful face. She bent down and hugged my special human. My master cried all the more and said, "Bart is my baby, I love him so." "Don’t worry," she said, "Bart will come live with us." I looked into this new human’s eyes as she said these words about me. She looked across the room at another woman, also with tears in her eyes. The other woman smiled and nodded. She gazed down at me and I could see the love in her eyes. Even though we hadn’t all known each other very long, we shared a special bond.
The next day my new friends took me to see a doctor. My ear had been bothering me, but my master was so ill I hadn’t told him. After the doctor, we went to the beach. It felt so good to get my feet wet and look for that special piece of wood I could drag into the water.
The following day my new friend took me to visit her house. She let me explore each room and meet her cats and another old dog, Niki. She told me Niki was 17 years old and that I needed to be careful so that I wouldn’t knock her down when I wagged my tail.
We went back home. I was very glad to see my master. I wanted to tell him about meeting my new friends but he was too tired to talk. He patted the bed for me to climb up near him, but before I could, he fell asleep. So I laid down on the floor beside him. KEEP READING