Guest Post - My Best Friend Forever

When Lauren first told me about her blog, I wasn’t surprised to say the least. One of the reasons our friends are as close as we are, is because we all have a slightly obsessive love for dogs and don’t think there is anything wrong with it. Once our friend Faith, in an attempt to describe me to her boss (who I was about meet on a business trip he was taking in Madrid where I currently live), compared me to a chocolate lab. Her co-workers thought it was the strangest comparison ever; I thought it was the best compliment I had ever received.


My chocolate lab Cali reminds me how great it is to have a dog every day. Though she has a love for eating my socks for attention and likes to disobey my authority in front of strangers, it is hard to stay mad at her. While I was home for the holidays this year visiting Cali, ahem I mean my family, she was so excited to see me that she followed me everywhere I went and asked me to play catch at least 20 times a day. But towards the end of my trip I knew I had to tell her that I was leaving again to go back and finish my last semester of grad school in Madrid. I put it off as long as I could until finally, with about an hour to go before I had to catch my flight and with all my bags packed and by the door, I told her I was leaving. As I turned my back for 30 seconds to talk to my mom, we both heard Cali eating something and knew she had gotten into one of my bags. Of all the bags I had by the door (yes, I know, after years of traveling and moving I still haven’t learned to take my dad’s advice and pack light), she chose my purse. And of all the crap I had in my purse, what did she choose to tear up? My plane tickets. Of course. My first instinct was to yell at her and try to get her to spit them out before she completely ripped them to shreds. But when my dad heard the yelling and came upstairs to see what she had done, he said to me, “She knows you’re leaving and didn’t want you to go.”


So say what you will about dog lovers and their sometimes overly obsessive ways, but I am proud to say Cali is my BFF.