With so much love to my wonderful dog, Roldo

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 bout three months since my beloved dog ROLDO has passed away, only now I have the strength to write about him, to share some thoughts with you, though with great sadness. 
He was with us for 18 years, he was only 2 months old when we adopted him from the shelter, but I was a child too so we grew up together. He was a really special dog, so brave, strong, playful, full of love!

I miss him so much, he was my best friend, I still cry from time to time, I know that he has been a very lucky dog, surronded by the love of his family for all his life, I will love him forever and I'm really grateful for all the beautiful moments we spent together.

He had a very sad story: his mother had been abandoned, pregnant, tied to a tree in the country. She was very sick. Fortunately, volunteers of the shelter were able to save her and so 3 dogs were born, two black males and one cream female.
Roldo was one of them, a little black puppy with a great desire to play and much need of love!
He was a revolution in our family, with his joy, playfulness, vivacity!
He was a dog with a very strong and combative personality, I always admired this, he taught me many things.

The first times we took him to sleep on a comfortable couch in a basement, but every time I brought him here he pretended to bite me (of course without doing any harm!) just to make clear to me that he wanted to stay on the second floor with all his family.
For years he slept on the bed with my sister, it was his first conquest, and was followed by many others.

When he was young he was a free spirit, he used to take a walk in the morning for our town and everyone knew him.
A bad day a person who knew him came to say that Roldo was hit by a car, we were desperate and we went to look for him, but he found us, he was a little scared but save!
From that day we do not let him go out alone anymore, we used to take walks togheter with the leash, he and I loved so much these walks!
He was always there for me and if someone of my family was sick with its extraordinary sensitivity, he lied down next to him/her to protect, he also gave up his walk not to leave the person alone.
Every time someone came home was celebrated with a so great joy, he was part of our family.
Roldo had sophisticated tastes, he loved spaghetti, pasta with meat sauce, tortellini, roast, cookies (that ate for breakfast every morning), sweets and fish but he hated rice.
For all his 18 years of life has always been in good health, the only thing that happened was the extraction of a tooth when he was 10 years old, but always surrounded by the love of all his family.

I could not imagine my life without him, I had the impression that he would always be there with me, so was a really difficult moment when 3 months ago, during a check by the vet, tests turned out very negative.
Roldo wasn't sick, he was just too old and his kidneys were not working anymore. The only thing that we absolutely did not want to happen was to make him suffer. We did infusion under the skin to make him fell better. One day we heard him breathing very badly, we had to bring him to the vet to give him the gift of a paceful passing, the hardest thing we have ever had to do.
I will never forget that trip, was the hardest day of my life, in the evening, my mother was driving the car, my father at her side and I behind with Roldo in my arms, wrapped in a blanket.
No one spoke, but in the air there were silent tears.
We kissed him, greeted with great love, we never abandoned him until the last moment, he felt aslept in my arms.
It's really diffucilt when we lost our beloved pets, because they are part of our family, our lives, we shared with them every moments, they give their all, without asking anything in return, they give us so much love, they console us, take care of us, give us joy.
I know Roldo will always be in my heart for all the rest of my life.
Thank you my little friend for everything!

I think I will never get over this pain completely, I hope we will meet in heaven one day.
I painted many portraits of my beloved Roldo, these two are the lasts I painted.