When a Friend is not Quite a Human

By KCY

“Can you watch Goldie while I’m gone?” Eddie, one of my good friends, asked me one day.

I hesitated. I’d never really had a pet growing up except for Fish, the resilient goldfish I had who swam in the murky water in his cramped bowl, going for days without food. When Fish finally died, my mom said no more pets. I couldn’t be happier. I didn’t know how to take care of anything. Besides that, much larger animals like cats and dogs terrified me.

“Are you sure you want me to take care of Goldie?” I asked. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love Goldie, but are you sure?”

“Yeah, you’re my first choice,” Eddie said. I raised my eyebrows at him. He paused. “Okay, yeah…I couldn’t find anyone else. Everyone is busy. It’s only for one night.”

I sighed inwardly. I didn’t really want the responsibility of caring for Goldie but I didn’t want to disappoint Eddie. “Yes, that’s fine,” I said.

“Great!” Eddie said, “I’ll drop him off tomorrow. I’ll bring his food and bed and write down his schedule. It’s pretty easy. He’s completely housebroken. Three walks a day: morning, evening around 5 PM and at night right before bed. He only eats breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

The next day, after a quick review of the instructions, Eddie placed Goldie’s leash in my hand. He knelt down to Goldie, putting his muscular arms around the blonde fifteen-pound Dachshund’s body. “I’m going to miss you, bud,” he whispered quietly, hugging him tightly. Goldie wagged his tail and licked Eddie’s face. Eddie stood up and took a deep breath as if he was swallowing tears. “Take care of my little one,” he said.

“Uh, sure,” I replied. I almost made a joke about how Eddie loved Goldie more than my own mother loved me. But I bit my tongue, seeing the look on his face. Strange. Goldie was only a dog but somehow this dog had managed to turn my masculine friend into a weepy marshmallow.

Eddie left. Goldie looked at me as if to say, “what’s next, boss?”

I looked at my watch. Eleven o’clock. Not quite time to feed Goldie his lunch. I spied a tennis ball in the corner of the hallway. Catch. I’d take him to play catch. That’s what dogs liked to do, right? I picked up the ball and Goldie wagged his tail as if to say, “yup, that’s exactly what I wanted to do!” We headed out the door and down the block to the park.

I release Goldie from his leash when we got into the park. Luckily there was no one playing on the basketball courts. The perfect place to have him run around. I threw the ball. Goldie ran after it, caught it into his mouth and brought it back to me. He wagged his tail. I threw it again and he ran to put it into his mouth again before returning to me with the ball. This was kind of fun. I threw the ball again.

After about thirty minutes of this game, I’d had enough. Goldie hadn’t but thank goodness it was time to go home and feed him lunch.

I poured his homemade dog food into his bowl. Eddie loved this dog so much that he made him fresh dog food almost every day. Wasn’t the store-bought kibble good enough? I made myself a sandwich and sat down to watch him devour the last of his food. As soon as he was finished, he rushed over to me and began rubbing his body against my legs. “Sorry, buddy, no food for you,” I said. He looked up at me with sad eyes. Sigh. “You win,” I said, tossing him a piece of my bread.

I finished lunch and cleaned up. Goldie watched my every move. He gave a big yawn. “Maybe you should take a nap,” I said to him, “why don’t you do that while I watch some television?” Goldie nodded as if he understood what I was saying.

I sat on the couch. Goldie jumped up next to me, curling himself up against me as I flicked on the television with the remote. Usually I don’t really like things touching me. I like to have my own space. But this felt nice. “Alright, just this one time,” I said to him.

An hour passed. Goldie woke up, jumping up and wagging his tail. He ran into the hallway, bringing back the tennis ball in his mouth, continuing to wag his blonde tail. “Okay, okay, we’ll go play again,” I said to him, clipping the leash onto his collar.

We headed to the same park again, staying there for about two hours then headed home. Just as we got home, my phone rang.

“Hello?” I said.

“Hey, it’s me,” my boyfriend Sam said.

“Hey,” I said, “are we still on for tomorrow?” Goldie barked, as if to say, “hey, get off the phone and pay attention to me!”

“That’s the thing. No, I’m sorry but this isn’t going to work.”

“Okay, let’s just do another day,” I said.

“No, I mean this isn’t going to work. You and me. I’m sorry but we are not on the same page. I don’t think it’s fair for either of us to continue with this relationship. I’m sorry,” Sam said, as he hung up.

I stared at the phone in utter shock. What? I frantically dialed his number. It rang and rang then went straight to voicemail. I hung up and threw the phone against the floor. I ran into my bedroom, collapsing onto it, sobbing. It’d only been three months, but I’d thought things were going well. This was out of the blue. Suddenly, I felt a warm body press against me and felt the flickering of a tongue against my damp skin. Goldie.

The tongue continued to flicker in and out. I reached up and picked him up, hugging his body to me, feeling his tiny heart beat against mine. He stayed still, letting me hug him as I sobbed.

We stayed like that the whole night, our bodies pressed together. I opened my eyes to see the morning sun streaming through my window, creating a halo effect onto Goldie’s blond-haired long hot dog body, reminding me of the comfort he had provided me the night before. I suddenly realized why Eddie had tears in his eyes when he left Goldie the night before. Because this wasn’t just a dog, he was a best friend.