Peewee

We had this female chihuahua that was given to us by a family friend. Her name was Missy. In the spring of 1985, I was in the sixth grade, Missy got pregnant by a dachshund. I came home from school one day and found them stuck together. She had five puppies. We gave away all of the puppies but one, the runt of the litter. I decided to keep him and name him Peewee, since he was the smallest of the bunch. Peewee turned out to be a great pet. He was my best friend through Junior High and High School. I was kind of sad that I could not take Peewee with me when I went out of the state for college. I asked my mom how Peewee was doing every time we talked. When I came home for Christmas, one of the first things that I did was go into the backyard to see Peewee. I loved Peewee. I changed schools after my freshman year of college, to a school that was thirty minuets away from home. I saw Peewee almost every weekend then. One weekend my girlfriend and I spontaneously decided to drive home. I had a few beers, so she did the driving. As soon as I got there I went to the backyard to see Peewee. I called for him but he did not come running like he always did when he heard my voice. I walked over to his house and it was empty. Peewee was nowhere to be found. I ran inside, “Mom where is Peewee?” “Oh baby, I forgot to tell you that Peewee died.” At first I thought she was kidding. I could not believe what I was hearing. “DIED??? Died of what?” “He got into a fight with a stray dog and got killed,” my mom said. “Mom, why didn’t you tell me about this? You know how I feel about Peewee.” “I’m sorry baby, it happened just last week, I did not want to bother you about it so I just had them take him away.” I was crushed. Between losing my best friend and the two 40s of Ides, I cried like a baby that night. I could not control it. I did not care that my girlfriend was there to witness me balling my eyes out over my dog. As a matter of fact, she consoled me as I cried on her shoulder. I could not get over the fact that I had to find out like this. Why did my mom not call me about this? Had I never expressed to my mom what Peewee had meant to me? Did she even care? After that night, I never spoke about Peewee with my mom again. As a matter of fact, I have not wanted anything to do with another dog after Peewee.