The. BOND!
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Millie doesn’t just love me.
She watches me like her whole little world depends on knowing where I am.
If I move, she moves.
If I stand, she lifts her head.
If I leave the room, even for a second, she has to know why.
Some people call that attachment-
I call it love that learned my pain by heart.
Because Millie has seen me in places most people never did.
Not the version of me that smiles for pictures.
Not the loud version.
Not the funny version.
Not the version that knows how to make everything look fine.
-She saw the Real One!
-The scared one.
-The sick one.
-The one lying there after being told life would never be the same again.
A lifelong illness.
Those words do something to a person.
They don’t just enter your ears.
They enter your bones.
They change the room.
They change your future.
They change the way you look at your own body.
And when I was trying to understand how to live inside that truth,
Millie was there.
Not asking questions.
Not judging.
Not needing me to explain anything.
Just there.
Her little body pressed close to mine like she was trying to keep my soul from slipping too far away.
-There were days I didn’t feel strong.
-Days I didn’t feel brave.
-Days I didn’t even feel like myself.
But Millie didn’t care what I looked like at my lowest.
She didn’t care if I was tired, broken, scared, angry, sick, or silent.
She loved me the same.
Actually— she loved me harder.
That’s the thing about her. She doesn’t love halfway.
She loves with her whole tiny body.
Her whole stubborn pug heart.
Her whole ancient little soul.
She looks at me like I am the safest place she has ever known,
while somehow becoming the safest place I have ever had.
She saved my life in ways people may never fully understand.
Not by doing something dramatic.
By staying.
By needing me.
-By giving me a reason to get up when I didn’t want to.
-A reason to keep going when everything felt too heavy.
-A reason to take one more breath, one more step, one more day.
When the world felt cold, she made it warm.
When my body felt like an enemy, she reminded me I was still loved.
When my future felt terrifying, she made the present survivable.
That is not “just a dog.”
That is a service animal.
That is a lifeline with Paws!
That is love in its purest form.
And yes— she still has to sit through my pictures.
The poses.
The “Millie, look at the camera.”
The “just one more.”
The camera in her face when she would probably rather be napping, snacking, or judging me from a blanket.
But even then, she stays.
Maybe annoyed.
Maybe dramatic.
Maybe giving me that pug look like, “Are we done yet?”
But she stays.
Because that’s what Millie does.
She stays.
-Through sickness.
-Through recovery.
-Through tears.
-Through panic.
-Through loneliness.
-Through every version of me I had to become just to survive.
She has loved me through all of them.
And the bond between us is not something casual.
It is not cute in the shallow way people say cute.
It is deep.
It is sacred.
It is the kind of bond that forms when one soul saves another without ever needing words.
Millie is my best friend.
My shadow.
My tiny protector.
My comfort.
My witness.
My heart outside my body.
And every day she is still here, still following me, still watching me, still loving me like I am her whole entire universe—
I know I am being given a gift I will never be able to repay.
So I love her harder!
I hold her longer.
I take the pictures.
I memorize her face.
Because she got me through the hardest parts of my life.
. . . . . .
And somehow, even now, this little pug is still saving me every, single, Day!
