in the rush to get ready for school With three sisters close to her own age mornings in the Ramirez household could be pretty chaotic She knew she was going to be home alone this afternoon for a few hours Her dad had taken Emily and Grace to their dentist appointments her mom was still at work and Natalie’s school didn’t get out until later Amigo I’m home she called out But it wasn’t necessary Amigo was already hurrying in from his favorite spot in the living room well as much as he hurried these days Like Abby Amigo was ten years old For dogs this was pretty old around the age of Abby’s grandparents Not long ago Abby had come home to find Amigo missing from the house It turned out there was a problem with his heart and he had to be taken to the animal hospital where her mom worked as a veterinarian Mrs Ramirez had prescribed Amigo medicine for
his heart condition It was Abby’s job to give him the pills with his breakfast every morning She did everything for Amigo Until recently Amigo had gone to school with her as her service dog for autism He was trained to help her in several different ways if she started to get stressed out or overwhelmed But he was mostly retired now and he only went to school with Abby if she was having a really bad day Amigo came over and licked Abby’s hands his fringed golden-brown tail waving in the air He was a golden retriever a breed known for its friendly temperament and trainability Amigo had originally been trained as a service dog for another child Unfortunately that boy had been very sick and had died from his illness Amigo had gone back to the Helping Paws Center where he had originally been trained Abby had picked him out right away when her family had gone there to find her a service dog That had been four years ago Since then Abby
could count on one hand the times she and Amigo had been apart for more than a day Who’s the best dog in the world asked Abby as Amigo came over to greet her Amigo tossed his head and pranced in place He knew it was him Abby stroked Amigo’s silky fur and told him how much she’d missed him while she was at school He followed her as she went over to the side of the refrigerator to look at the magnetic dry-erase board stuck to the side It was her schedule board At the top the date was written in purple marker Each hour of the day was marked off with its own square All her activities were written into the squares Now it was just past three o’clock and the next item on the list was Have a snack Next to the words was a hand-drawn picture of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of juice Somehow seeing a picture next to the
to words made everything clearer and easier remember Abby poured her juice and made her sandwich saving the cut-off crusts for Daisy the Berkshire pig She was grateful the ranch had rescued a pig who could eat all kinds of table scraps Amigo looked wistfully at the crusts He loved peanut butter But the bread and jelly weren't very healthy for dogs and Amigo had his own treats Abby got out a box of dog biscuits from the cupboard and gave Amigo two of them while she ate her own snack
