Despite me being my normal meticulously edity self, know that this piece really hit home for me. It's hard for me to read this sort of thing without crying. The older I get, the more amazing it is to me that we have dogs in our lives. They really are just such impossibly special creatures. Losing the dog I got for my eighth birthday a few years ago was by far the hardest thing I've ever gone through as a person. And your final happy day with your dog so beautifully parallels my own. Feel no obligation to read, but I wrote about it here: https://medium.com/the-memoirist/boos-final-walk-4f1003ea6c64 the pieces I've written about my dog are across the board the very most personal ones I've shared on medium. Really glad you decided to send this one in, Josh. And so sorry about your loss. It's truly one of the hardest things to go through in life.