Through all of it, he never turned away from me.
Not once.
He didn’t grow angry. Didn’t resist. Didn’t lose that steady, quiet trust that made everything harder, not easier. Even on his worst days, when his legs trembled and his body seemed too heavy for him to carry, he would still make his way over to me in the morning, his tail tapping softly against the floor like a promise he refused to break.
I’m still here.
That’s what it always felt like he was saying.