My Two Dogs

By Conrad 

       In the beginning, before I was born, my dad had a black Labrador retriever named Tank. She had died a couple years before I was born.  But when I was born my mom and dad already had our dog, Summer for a couple of years. My dad told me he planted a dogwood tree for Summer when she was born. When I was born Summer was about 6 years old in human years. When I was about 6 we got a new puppy, and around that time Summer was 12 years old in human years.

      My dad had just arrived home in his truck from the airport. When I ran out to greet him I noticed something big and rectangular in the trunk of his car. After I gave my dad a hug he opened the trunk to his car. I could not believe my eyes. In the trunk there was a dog kennel, and inside that kennel was a puppy. It was the cutest dog I had ever seen. My dad told me the dog was a girl. She was an English Labrador retriever from a very good purebred dog breeder in the U.S.

       I ran back into the house and screamed “we got a puppy!” At once my two sisters came running down the stairs. Soon everyone was gathered in the family room. My dad had let the puppy out of her kennel and she was happily running around in the family room. And by then Summer had walked over to greet the new edition to the family. Once everyone had said hello to her and got to pet her, we started thinking of names for the new puppy. Then my mom had an idea. She said “since Summer is named after the season, why don’t we name the puppy after a flower that blooms in the summer?” .Our dog was officially named Daisy.

    After a while we found out that Daisy was a smart dog. She was the smartest dog I ever knew. She would know she was being fed because she could hear the sound of her dog food hitting her bowl and she would come running. She would also know when she was getting a walk because she could hear the sound of her box being open, and then her leash hitting the sides of the box.

  She also became good at listening to commands. The reason for this was that Daisy went to a kennel across the bridge to become a trained dog. When we dropped her off at the kennel, she still looked the same from when we first got her. But when I saw her two months later, she had grown so much. Her legs had grown longer, her coat was a darker shade in some places, and her black nose had turned pink. Another big change was that she listened to commands a lot better. She had changed into a more obedient dog.

    A couple months later, Summer had started to suffer. She was an old dog by when. After a couple weeks it was clear that she was still suffering. My parents decided to put Summer down.  We went to Ocean City and left Summer at the vet. When we were gone Summer was put down and then she was cremated and we put her ashes in a box. Then we buried her next to the tree that was planted when she was born. It was hard for all of us, because Summer was put down on her 13^th birthday. It was also hard for Daisy. She was whimpering for the first couple of days after we came home. She was very confused because Summer wasn’t there and Summer was always there with her. But after a while we all got used to a house without loving, sweet old Summer in it.