A fury tidbit is now in heaven

12 years of life left me September 5^th 2011. My family’s best friend and loyal companion, Toto. Toto had to be put to sleep, much to our regret. It’s really hard for us to think he is now gone forever. My whole family was devastated, heart broken, and heavy chested. We lost the best friend we could ever ask for. He was the only one that was always there when someone walked through the door, and he gave you quite a welcoming. You could get up at 5am every morning and he will be up with you doing all kinds of tricks to get his daily cookie, or just to sit with you while you had your morning coffee.

For people who are not pet owners or dog lovers, you may think this whole grieving over a dog is stupid, but Toto was a part of our family. He was so loved and these past few weeks have been very sad and lonely in our house. I know he loved being here. He was never neglected and was always the center of attention along with my other dog, Missy. Toto was always there to listen or to console you whenever you were sad or crying, it’s like he knew exactly how you felt. Toto loved chasing his toys, eating his treats, and so much more. He couldn’t go out to take walks though, since he would pull so hard on his leash and choke himself. I know this may be a little boring to many of you but I just needed to get my words out. However I know other pet owners will understand.

At 12 years of life, Toto’s health wasn’t as good as it had always been. He would often get this little ball on his right eye, and he had to go under surgery because of it once. However, being that old, you could still see the happy and energetic dog he had been his whole life, and he was still as loving to anyone who reached to pet him.  

So I remember how I once got to stay home from school, since our parents had to go and get our grades to school. Toto wanted to say hi to me when I woke up, but he wouldn’t jump on my bed all excited and ecstatic as he usually was. My sister thought something might be wrong with him, since he wouldn’t lean one of his hind paws on the ground. She found a bump near his hind leg, so she let my mom now so she could take Toto to the vet.

After going to the vet, we found out Toto had to go under surgery once again, but we didn’t thought much of it. We thought he would be fine, like always. I remember how my mom often said how he was already an old dog, and that stuff like this would start to happen to him.

So Toto had surgery on Friday, and I hung out with my friends that day. I remember I came home after having a major fight with my brother, so I didn’t bother saying hi to anyone. After I had calmed down, I went downstairs and can only remember how shocked I was when I saw Toto’s wound. The stitching was so big, it looked like a zipper. I wanted to cry, since I’ve never seen him in that state before, but I held the tears back and remembered I had to be strong for my family, for him.

That was a very hectic weekend. My mom, my sister and I barely got any sleep at all, since we were taking care of him and had to clean his stitching, which looked terrible by the way. I can only figure how much pain he really felt. Toto was supposed to be getting better that weekend, but he was only getting worse. My mom took him that Sunday night to a dog’s hospital, and he was injected with something that was supposed to relief his pain and make him feel much better. I don’t know how or why it happened, but when Toto was either enjoying his meal or just drinking some water (which he loved to do) he started convulsing. This only made me want to cry even more. He went from being this happy, healthy dog, to an incredibly sick dog whose health was deteriorating by the second. Toto had suffered a lot, and after this bump was removed and sent to the laboratory, we found out he had cancer. If he made it through this surgery and if this big wound healed, more surgeries came along for him and a lot of visits to the vet. I remember hearing how my mom told my sister that Toto had lived a happy life, and that amount of suffering was just not fair to him. My heart broke, and I knew what was coming. We decided to put him to sleep and it was the hardest thing we’ve ever gone through. Especially since I had to get out of the car knowing that it will be the last time I will ever see him, or pet him, or kiss him in that tiny head of his.  That day, I could still hear his heavy breathing, or his paws moving through the floor, of him scratching your bedroom door like he was telling you “hey, I want to go in, let me take a nap with you”.

I don’t want to remember him like I last saw him though, I would always like to remember him as Toto, the dog who had fierce love for his family, the one who no matter what he was always on your side, the one who was there during the hard times with his wet nose tucked under your arm and one of his snorts just like he was saying “I’m here for you, I’ll always be here for you”. A stout little guy, with a noble look and a steady, strong bark. That was my friend, that was my dog and I am going to miss him terribly.

Toto, I love you, miss you and will never forget you.

My Indecisiveness

It’s hard to make up my mind when I’m asked to describe my favorite weather or season. I think every single season and all kinds of weather bring up a lot of memories. Good and bad memories. I like them all for different reasons. I think the one I enjoy the most is winter, or maybe its summer. I have a hassle deciding which one I like the most, so I should list and reason them all.  I’ll start with winter. I love Winter. Christmas is here, my birthday is here, and cold weather is here. I love cold weather. There`s mittens and scarves and boots and jackets. That amazing feeling when you can stay indoors and all you’ll ever need is a blanket and a cup full of hot cocoa. During winter, we also have those big and beautifully decorated Christmas trees, that pine smell and delicious roasted marshmallows, I could go on and on. I guess you could say this is one of the seasons I enjoy the most, since I believe Christmas is the nicest time of the year, and also the most expected one. Winter also reminds me of vacation time, that so anticipated time for everyone when we can just take a break from everything. 

Next is spring! Beginnings! Oh yes beginnings J Guatemala is always full of colorful flowers, and I think it’s just another thing we should learn to appreciate from our country. Their colors and their scent are amazing. Also, the smell of fresh cut grass (even though we all hate the big noise our gardener makes while cutting the grass) and the morning smell. I love seeing the sun when I wake up and hearing all those birds chirping outside my house and something about that puts me in a better mood. This is another thing the whole world takes for granted, since we see it everything and people think its just nothing new. I like the warmer weather spring brings.

Summer!! There’s something about the time when nicer, sunny weather rolls around that people are much more pleasant and so much easier to get along with. Again waking up to the sound of birds chirping. They’re so darn adorable. It’s a reminder that it’s summertime and not freezing outside. Eating your favorite ice cream at any time of the day is just not something you can do during the winter. For some reason, everything orange tastes better. Orange slushies, orange ice pops, orange juice!  Being able to wear a sweater with shorts at night. I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved this. Everyone also enjoys the beach! Photography during the summer, the water, sprinklers, everyone going around without a care in the world. Half year vacations are here, flip flops, and sandals! It’s a really fun season in which everything just seems much more enjoyable!

I wish Guatemala had Autumn though, I wish I we had a season in which yellow, and bright red leaves fell across the street. Im aware that during autumn, snuggly jumpers, hats and gloves are worn. You can also smell richly scented candles of spices, hot chocolate, cookies, pumpking pie and candy. Warmth and comfort would describe autumn perfectly. Walking or running into a dry pile of leaves.Bonfires and fireworks during late October. I think this would be my favorite season if it ever existed in my country.

I guess every season just brings memories, and some seasons bring out the best in people. I remember sitting in my dining room this past Saturday, and suddenly getting that “I want to go on a trip” kind of mood. So after thinking how it was so weird that this thought came to my mind so suddenly and wondering why was it happening, I realized it was because of the weather. The whole sunny but also a little windy and cold weather reminds me of the times I`ve gone on a trip. Now I know why I felt and thought like that all of the sudden, and I kind of liked it since it reminded me of vacation time all of the sudden. It resembled the kind of weather we have in Guatemala during November (even though we are at September).

So after listing all the types of weather and every season, and reasoning them out, I still cant make up my mind. Every single season has something unique about it.

Again, my indecisiveness.

A Soaked Drama

When I’m asked to write about a childhood experience or my favorite childhood memory I can only come up with one thing. As a child, I did a bunch of ridiculous things (that I know regret since my siblings keep on making fun of me) and a lot of pranks to every single member of my family, I also whined about almost everything I was told to do. Yes, I was one crazy child and a walking disaster, and in my opinion after all this time, that hasn’t changed much. I think one of the funniest things I’ve ever done as a child (or probably the most memorable one) is when I broke the bathroom sink. I can remember everything clearly about that day and the images are at the top of my head. It was a typical Sunday morning in my house, and we were getting ready to go out on a swimming trip. My mom asked me to go take a shower and I, being a kid, a shower wasn’t one of my favorite things to do. It was more fun for me to go play with my siblings or play with my favorite toys. So after a few hours of avoiding my mom who kept telling me I needed to shower, she got fed up and trapped me in the bathroom. I started crying and whining about how I refused to take a shower, and asking her to let me keep playing. She was so mad and annoyed by my whining that she tried to pull me towards the shower. I got a hold of the first thing near me, the tower holder. My mom kept pulling me, trying to get me to get a shower, but I was so stubborn that I didn’t let the towel holder go. She finally yelled at me “You’re going to break that thing, get in the shower!!” So I let go of the towel holder and hung into the sink. By this moment my mom was fuming mad and I wasn’t too happy either. I kept hanging into the sink so tightly and my mom kept pulling me with all her strength that finally the sink broke into a million pieces and water started coming out. Everything happened so fast and when I looked down and saw the whole mess I did I kept thinking “OH OH my mom is going to kill me!!” A broken sink and my mom screaming at me called my father’s attention and that’s when I really got terrified. My dad of course wasn’t very happy at the sight. My mom was trying to cover the hole where a bunch of water came out with her finger and the water kept splashing all over her face. Now that I remember how that looked I can’t help but laugh at it. It was one funny scene. So after my dad saw the whole mess, I took off running into the maid’s room (random place, I know) and kept weeping over the whole mess I had done and thinking “What am I going to do now?” After a while my dad came in and started scolding me and yelling at me over the whole mess. Even my siblings got mad at me since we were going swimming and my dad canceled the whole swimming trip (this was a big thing for me and my siblings at the time). My family keeps reminding me of this and I don’t think they will ever let me forget it, but I probably wouldn’t be able to leave this memory behind. Every time I tell someone the story, I tell them how that sink was in extreme need for a change and we got a new one which was way prettier J( yay me!) When I remember this soaked drama, I wonder why I couldn’t just take a shower in the first place or how could I be so stupid not to guess the sink would obviously broke! Fortunately my parents laugh it out now and even joke about it and how it went from being this horrible, traumatic moment to a memory that me and my family cherish and will stay in our minds forever.