My bestest firend is my dog.  

My dog's name is Wilbur, but I call him "Wheezy".  The reason I call him that is because when he sleeps, he snores; it sounds like he has asthma.  It's really cute to listen to him!

Wheezy is a Dachshund mix.  He looks like a Dachshund in the body, but his head looks like something else, and his ears stand up like little tiny flags.  He doesn't look like a true Dachshund.  But he's still cute (at least to me!).

Wheezy is 10 years old.  He's an old dog.  In dog years he is probably 90 or better.  It's no wonder he's slowed down; he's no longer the active puppy he used to be: his puppyhood is long past over.  He loves to lie around and loaf all day, but when I come home from a friend's house or from school, you swear he was a puppy all over again because he yelps joyfully and jumps at me, flinging his fat self onto my legs, nearly knocking me over.

My mom is gonna put Wheezy on a diet.  She says he is too fat for his own good.  In fact, the vet also told Mom and Dad that.  So no more gourmet treats (or feeding him scraps from the table): today starts his diet.  Mom got some special diet dog food from the vet the other day when she'd taken him and today he gets to eat it for the first time.  I hope he likes it, or better yet, eats it.

The vet says that Wheezy has some heart trouble and being overweight like he is is only going to lead to heartbeak and an early death, so Mom and Dad have no choice but to put the dog on this diet.

I don't think Wheezy is gonna be happy.  He loves his table scraps and fancy, schmancy gourmet dog food.

Anyway, back to my story.  Wheezy is my buddy-pal, my best friend.  He is always there to lick away the tears whenever I'm sad or have had a bad day at school, and he loves watching me work on my homework, play on my computer, playing ball with my friends, or hanging out with my family.  Whenever we go anywhere Wheezy comes along; he is a people "person" in a dog's body: he doesn't know a stranger; he loves everybody.

I know that Wheezy won't live forever and that makes me sad.  I just hope that when he does die, it won't hurt him.  I pray he dies a peaceful, painless death.  Yet while he is alive, I will do all I can to enjoy having him around and pray that the diet he is gonna be on works.  I want Wheezy to be around for a very long time to come; I just love him so much!