My Best Friend

In the thirty five years of my life I made quite a lot of friends. Anybody would have, thirty five years is rather a long period of time. However, ever since i can remember I've had just one best friend - Buzo. Buzo was tall, had very soft hair, four legs and a long tail.That's all I can tell you about Buzo's physical appearance, that's because I had never seen Buzo, that's because I'm blind. People said he had beautiful brown hair and brown eyes.I didn't know what brown colour was like, however I still at times imagined how he must have looked like. I think I had the correct picture of him in my mind.Its not necessary to see someone to know how he looks like, you sometimes know it inspite of not having seen him.

My parents had brought him home when I was eight.He felt like a little, soft ball of wool. From the moment my parents gave him to me, we stuck together forever. We played together, ate together, slept together and grew up together, although he grew much faster than I did. He never treated me differently like others did. Neither did he make fun of me nor did he pity me for being blind. He loved me for what I was.

I remember talking to him for hours. Oh yes, it is possible to talk to dogs. They understand you. Buzo could make out when I was sad or happy. He knew all my secrets. The best part was that I knew my secrets would remain with him. He listened intently and never had any free advice to give.

He would sit by my bedside for hours when I fell ill.He didn't give me any medicines but he did something that helped me recover faster.I still wonder what it was.

I met Alice when I was eighteen and Buzo was ten. I think I had bugged him a lot at that time. I had so many stories to say and he heard them all and never complained. He was very happy for me. I knew it.

I moved in with Alice a year later and so did Buzo. One evening when Alice and I returned from walk we found the house frighteningly quiet. Buzo was not barking the way he usually did. I got very scared and asked Alice to call the doctor. He said that Buzo was aging and these things would happen more often now.

It was then that something struck me, all my life I had thought that we would be together till the rest of our lives but the truth was that we would be together till the rest of his life. Somethings in life are very difficult to accept and this was one of them.

I had never realised that he was aging and that one day he would die. I just wasn't prepared for it.

Days passed by as Buzo became more quiet and less active and one day it happened. I got up in the morning to take him for a walk but he didn't. I didn't talk for days. I t wasn't about losing a pet, it was about losing a friend. It was about losing someone who loved you unconditionally. He never asked for anything but love. Only if humans could love each other the way Buzo loved me, world would have been a better and a happier place to live in.

Today I live with my wife Alice and my two wonderful children, however I still miss my best friend. It's been almost fifteen years since he died but no one has ever been able to replace him in my heart and I wonder if anybody ever would.........