Growing up I had always wanted a golden retriever. They are big lovable beautiful dogs, but I had never known that one day a golden retriever would be my best friend – it sounded a bit cliché.

We got Simon when I was in high school and he was the sweetest most adorable fluffy puppy. Despite all of the mischief he got himself into, it was really hard to get mad at him. I had so much fun training him and looked forward to spending our time together each training session. He was smart and picked things up quickly. Not to mention, he loved attention and you could scratch his head for hours on end and he wouldn’t leave.

Simon loved food of all varieties and sometimes it got him into trouble. I remember one day I slaved away making homemade pear and asiago ravioli. I even made the pasta from scratch – little squares cut to perfection. They needed to be carefully laid out onto cookie sheets, with a dollop of mix to fill the middle section of the pasta. Then, I had dabbed water around the outside edge to stick the pasta squares together. One by one. Once I was finished I needed to sit down since I had just spent 7 hours on my feet in the kitchen. It had only made enough to fill two cookie sheets after all that effort. All of a sudden, I heard a loud bang coming from the kitchen – it startled me as I had no idea what it could be. Ten seconds later, my mom and I ran over to check what had happened. Simon had somehow eaten a whole cookie sheet of uncooked hand crafted pear and asiago ravioli in TEN SECONDS. I don’t even think he took a breath in the time it took him to demolish about 30 raviolis. At the time, I was sooooooooo mad, but now, it’s kind of funny.

Simon turned out to be a bit stubborn, especially when he didn’t want to go back into the car after a walk. He would just lay on the pavement when we tried to guide him in with the leash. Also, for everyone except my mom, he would only come if he felt like it. Most of the time he just continued to enjoy the outdoors until he was ready to obey. He also somehow got full control over when he wanted to get pet. You would be enjoying a nice beverage with friends and family until all of a sudden a big wet nose would sneak under your arm, begin to push its way all the way under as you spill your drink, until you give in to head scratches.

Simon gave a nice balance of stubbornness and sweetness. As soon as you were annoyed with his attitude he would walk over and sit right beside you, or put his head in your lap. Anger was never a result of his presence. It always ended in love, and all he wanted was to love his humans. You could tell that despite his strong head, he was very happy with the people around him. Whenever you walked by him laying on his side on the floor, you would just hear the “thump, thump, thump” of his waging tail. He would give a bit of a side glance expecting you to give in and pet his soft, glorious fur.

Unfortunately, Simon had to stay behind with my parents while I went to university. I would always look forward to seeing him on holidays… oh and my parents of course… because he would give the biggest most enthusiastic welcome. His entire body would wiggle when he saw me – he would do this to anyone he hadn’t seen for a while, even to my parents after they got home from work. But not seeing him for months at a time gave him an even bigger more extreme body wiggle. No matter how stressed out I was about school or anything at all, just having him sit with me would calm me down. In return, I had a certain position I could put him in to relax him when he was feeling agitated. Please see below.

Simon gave a large dose of joy to whoever he met and I’m happy that he became my best friend during the time he was on this earth. He also filled in as my parents’ child while they had to experience the “empty nest” syndrome. Although I don’t think another dog could compare to Simon, I think we all need a fluffy goofball in our lives. I look forward to finding myself another best friend that I can share a whole new set of memories with.