My dog was my best friend. She was the first buddy I ever had. WE got her when I was four and she escaped death hundreds of times. My friend Sonia said she should’ve been a cat. We brought her to Japan with us and on every other assignment my Dad had in the military. She began to despise me because of the attention I gave her and she would always leave the room whenever I came in, but that was just part of her attitude problem. Sometimes I would catch her sneaking in my room and I knew she still loved me. She left the world just the way she came into it, “sleeping.” That is all she ever did so I am certain that is what she wanted. I used to call her my little Chesire cat because her cheeks stuck in that grin position she had. She was always smiling.