For Leo, the gentlest soul I’ve ever known!

I’ve left the door unlocked, but not open.
Just in case your paws  remember the way back.

Because hope, hope still lives here.
Quietly.
Like dust on your old leash. Like sunlight falling on the empty spot by the door where you used to wait; tail curled, eyes wide, wearing joy like a crown.

I still reach for the sound of you; your paws,  your sighs, the soft panting that once played background music to our everyday.

But the house is still. Too still.
And grief? Grief is a ghost that keeps licking my hands like it remembers how you used to.

You looked like a storm, but you felt like  a warm fire in winter.
A lion who bowed to love.
Fierce in form, but never once did you raise your voice at the world.

Not even when it was cruel. Not even, when it took you from me.

They say dogs love unconditionally, but you...
you redefined the word.
You made it feel like home after a long, brutal day, like safety in a storm.

Now I come home, and my arms forget there’s nothing  left to reach for anymore.

The absence of  your welcome is the loudest thing in the room.

Some say time will soften the edges.
But what do they know?
They didn’t lose the best part of themselves in the shape of a dog with eyes like forgiveness and a heart too big for this world.

And I… I ache with the knowing that the door will stay unlocked forever, but never again swing open to the joy of your face.

I’ve left the door unlocked, because some part of me still hopes, that maybe the universe  will get it wrong, and maybe you’ll find  your way back just once more.

Until then, know this:
You were, you are, and you always will be loved without measure, missed like breath, remembered in everything.

And when I cross whatever threshold comes after this life, I hope the first thing I see is the tail wagging like time never passed.
And the light in your eyes calling me home to a place without endings.

- Neha Sharma