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
Want to go for a walk buddy she asked when she had finished Instead of jumping up and grabbing his leash in his mouth like he usually did Amigo just wagged his tail politely and heaved a little sigh Abby sighed too Lately Amigo hadn’t had as much energy as usual He still liked to go for walks but he hardly ever ran or played like he used to As Abby rinsed her plate in the sink she thought about the rest of her day The next item on her list just said AMIGO Abby reserved an hour after school every day just to spend time with him Her sister Emily had drawn the picture of Amigo that went next to his name Abby was pretty good at drawing but Emily was better After AMIGO the next activity in her day was Dog chores Abby was in charge of looking after the ranch’s rescued dogs The ranch had just had a big adoption event so there was only one rescued dog now She was a one-year-old black Labrador named
