Ode to Dog

This here is Buddles. Also known as Alpine to my mother who, when he was but a pup, fed him cooked rice soaked in Alpine evap. And as Jackie to her adoptive family of seven years.
Buddles is Sir Ed's graduation gift, I'm guessing she is because she was given right before we went off to college, to me. She has a sister, or a brother, never knew which, that was given to Erika. Little Buddles came in a dingy plastic bag, it was raining then and her fur clung to her body.
The little fluffball stole everyone's heart. I was allowed to have her sleep in my room, and I in turn, after her many yelps, allowed her to sleep in my bed. She had a favorite pillow, a Hetti Spaghetti head beany.
When it was time for me to leave for Manila, my mother, in an inexplicable surge of unusual goodwill, packed her up and managed her papers so she could travel with me. At the airport, it broke my heart when I saw her dizzy form emerge from the conveyor belt. Poor little Buddles didn't have enough oxygen back in the baggage compartment.
I couldn't take her to the dorm with me so my uncle, who lived right inside the campus, adopted her. There she was renamed Jackie.
Having a close friend named Jacqueline, I couldn't make myself call my dog, no matter how close we were, Jackie. So whenever I come over for a visit, I call her Buddles. And she never forgets.
She is now 7 and I am readying myself in case she decides to go to doggy heaven early. My little girl has grown up so fast and I am afraid I'd cry when at last she goes. Here's to you baby Buddles.