Armani

Armani and I have been everywhere together. He’s lived with me in Long Island, upstate New York, Kansas and DC. He’s stayed with me in hotels in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. We have flown on airplanes together, gone camping and canoeing. We have lived together on a farm, in a trailer and many apartments. We have been through an ice storm, snow storms, hurricanes and tornados. Armani has seen me graduate from undergrad, vet school and my internship. Armani helped shape me into the little lady that I am today, and I am so thankful that I was able to call myself his momma for all these years.

When I sat down and started thinking what I wanted to write, I felt overwhelmed with emotion. My mind literally turned into a movie reel of fantastic memories. I have so many happy and silly memories of my baby boo. I would like to share a few of the ones that were most memorable for both of us.

When I first adopted Armani we lived in upstate NY. There was this really big hill that you had to climb up to get to my apartment complex. When Armani didn’t feel like walking anymore he would just sit and look at me. I remember one time he decided that he was done walking and the only way we were both getting home was for me to carry my 50lbs of smoosh up the hill to the front door.

My freshman year of vet school Armani became a service dog. I remember I was so nervous the day of his test and just before we went in, I looked him in the eyes, and told him to please be good, b/c he would really like this experience. Part of the test was an obstacle course where the dogs had to navigate through wheelchairs and walkers without knocking anyone over, Armani did great! After he passed his test, we spent many Sunday mornings at the local nursing home putting smiles on lots of little old ladies and little old men’s faces.

I went canoeing once with Armani when we were camping. He was doing so great in the canoe. I remember turning around for one second and then turning back and he wasn’t in the canoe anymore. He had jumped out of the canoe, and sunk straight into the water like a sack of potatoes. I jumped in (with clothes & shoes), grabbed my baby boo from under the water, and I decided that was the last time we were going to go canoeing.