Fourteen years of relentless love, of being the sunbeam in our storm, the stillness in our noise. It doesn't matter that she didn't share our blood - her love was thicker than lineage. She was my parents' child. My sister in every way that mattered. My shadow, my storm-chaser, my soul's mirror.
And now… she is gone.
But not really.
Because how does one forget someone who never really left? I don't know where she is, but I believe - I need to believe - that she's still around. Maybe in the wind that brushes against my cheek unexpectedly. Maybe in the sudden stillness of a chaotic day. Maybe in the antics of another creature crossing my path with that same spark in their eyes.
Rani, if you can hear me - I miss you. I miss you in ways I didn't know were humanly possible. You were more than a dog. You were a chapter etched into the very skin of my soul.
Tonight, I send you a prayer. A whisper tucked inside a tear. May wherever you are now be filled with green fields, warm sunshine, and a family that needs you as desperately as we did. But when your work there is done… come find me again. In any form, any shape, any breath of life.
Until then - be alive, be merry, and be you. Because that's all you ever had to be to make this world a better place.