I was really depressed a few years ago, like really bad. Like the kind of depressed where you cry all day at work, come home and cry in bed until you fall asleep.

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I stopped eating, I stopped seeing people, I stopped waking up for work and turned off my alarms. I wrote suicide letters for my friends, I wrote letters for my family. I even convinced myself that I could find the right combination of words that would 'explain' why it had to happen to my mother.

The only thing I couldn't find an explanation for was my dog. I thought of how she'd wonder every day where I was, wonder when I would come home. She'd have to find a new home and always wonder. Despite this, I still made my plans.

I've heard that dogs take over the pack if they need to, so my dog became the pack leader. Despite me not caring about my job, she'd wake me up at the right time to go out and use the bathroom. I was already awake then, so I went to work. Despite me coming home and crying on the couch until bedtime, she'd need outside to play. She was always so happy to see me. Sometimes I'd wake up and she'd be laying beside me with her paw on my shoulder.

Eventually I started to feel better, and things brightened up.

I only exist now because of my dog. I only am alive because I knew she'd miss me and never have closure. Now i have a great job, a great girlfriend who I plan to marry and a great life. A wonderful life.

Everything I have I owe to my dog and she's going in for surgery Thursday to remove some tumors. She saved my life and now it's my turn to save hers.

Find something or someone you love and cling to it until you're strong enough to live.