Riley was pure love and the kindest soul.
What could I say about this precious being… There are so many Riley stories that we have tucked in our hearts. He had a beautiful long life and gave us almost 2 decades of love, life and everything else. He inserted himself in a BIG way into every aspect of our lives and was completely humanised by all of us and by himself too. In the first part of his life, he was larger than life itself and all I can say was how grateful I was that he was in such a small body. He was big energy and naughty in all the best ways a little dog could be and the girls loved it. In the second half of his life, he was so mellow and was all about soft blankets and cuddles, mollycoddled to the end. He was adorable and funny, making us laugh everyday. No matter who met him, loved him. He just had that way with people. He had a bit of an online social media presence too, it honestly felt like everyone knew him and loved him.
We just accepted him with all his odd little idiosyncrasies and there were many and he accepted us with ours. He was a true family dog, he belonged to all of us at different times and he had this way of making each one of us feel so special when he did. It was our complete honor. In the last bit of his life, he became my dog, I will never fully understand why but I am so grateful he did. It was pure adoration both ways. He was my studio dog, my yoga and meditation buddy and my all round little shadow. I carried him home sleeping on my chest, wrapped in my gown almost every night.
I was in so much physical pain with guilt that I had to make the call to end his precious little life. Maybe with time, I will find my peace with it. It got so hard in the end as his world got smaller and smaller.
