Do you remember the moment of excitement and happiness when you get your first pet? I was 5 when I had that moment, I remember my dad coming home from my uncle’s house. I went outside to tell him hi, when I saw he was holding a 3 month Rottweiler German shepherd mix. I was excited when I saw the puppy; I asked my dad who owned the dog and he said with a huge smile it was ours. I ran as quickly as I could to tell my older sister that we got a puppy, and we ran as fast as we could to go see the puppy. We were all excited to have him and we named him Rocky.
I remember that we used to go outside and play with him; we took him for walks and ran with him. Every day I spent time with him. I played with him, and gave him showers, and tried to teach him tricks. It was a new experience for me and I loved every minute of it. He was a new addition to the family and I was happy to have a new friend.
Everything was going great, but as years went by he was beginning to grow older and so was I. My interest for Rocky started to go away, I didn’t play with him as much and we didn’t go for walks. I was probably 12 when I didn’t pay much attention to him and he was around 6-7 years old. He always used to bark at me when I passed by him, but all I did was give him food and water and let him loose so he could run around. He always wanted to play with me with his toys, but all I did was brush him off and tie him back up where his house was in the corner of the backyard.
A couple of more years had passed and all I did was give him food and barely paid attention to him. One day when I got home my dad told me to give Rocky some water and food, so I went to his house to go get his bowl of water and food and I noticed he wasn’t there. I was curious, and thought he was probably running around the house or the neighbor’s house like he usually did when he got loose. I went to go check, but he wasn’t, and then I decided to go check if he was at the park. There was still no sign of him. I took a walk around the neighborhood, but still with no luck. I went home and told my dad that he wasn’t at his house and he decided to go look for him with the car. When he returned he told me that he didn’t see him, and he would probably come home soon. I didn’t worry that much because his had escaped a couple of times, but he usually came home in the night.
The next day I went to check if Rocky had returned, but he wasn’t home. I got worried and asked my dad if we could go check if he was at the animal shelters, but he said he was busy and had to do some other stuff. So I was waiting for Rocky to come home, I kept thinking he would come home when he got hungry or thirsty he always did, but a week passed and he still wasn’t home. My dad told me he went to go check at the dog pound, but he wasn’t there.
After a month I realized that he wasn’t coming home. I was sad that he didn’t return and hated myself for not treating him good and not playing with him. He was my first pet and I didn’t treat him that well or pay attention. It made me realized that I had lost a special friend that was part of my family. I thought that if I would’ve treated him good, if I would’ve played with him or treated him better than I did, he would’ve still been with us. Ever since Rocky ran away I have seen animals in a different way, I see them as part of a family. They should be treated with care and with love, and always pay attention to them because if you don’t you would regret it and it will be too late.