Play a little trick on me

It's funny. Sometimes I still feel like Pepe's on vacation. I feel like he is going to come back. I know it's my wishful thinking and I am probably in the denial stage. But I seriously feel like he packed up his bag and left for a little vacation somewhere.

One of the things that my vet told me when he passed away was " I think Pepe enjoyed his second chapter of his life a lot more". I hope it's true. I honestly think that Pepe was happier with me and my boyfriend. He loved Pepe as much as I did. He was so good to him. Pepe told me to pick him. I trusted his judgement on people because I couldn't trust mine at that time.

This is one of his picture from the time when me and my boyfriend started dating. It was a tiny condo in Waikiki and I felt bad for Pepe because it was not big enough for Pepe like it used to be. But I made sure to take him out on the grass a lot back then. And he gradually got used to the new condo lifestyle. He always had a luxury of living in the house where the yard was right in the back of the house, so yes I did feel bad for him and wasn't sure I was being good enough of a mom to take care of him in that kind of condition. But he did seem to enjoy small things like taking a nap and hang out on the couch, and sleep on the bed together. Maybe the size of the house didn't matter to him. I think it was around that time of my life too that I started appreciating simple and small things instead of being in the highlight all the time because Pepe showed me how.

My boyfriend started giving him a treat. I never gave him treats because I didn't want to get him fat. He was already chubby and my vet told me to watch his weight because of his heart condition. But he thought he was getting old and should enjoy some treats here and there so I was fine with that. Soon enough, Pepe learned to do tricks because of my boyfriend (or the treats!).

He would say "Treat?" and his ears went up. He would say "Roll over...all the way" and he used to roll over and show his belly just like in this picture. Pepe never did tricks before. My friends used to say that Pepe doesn't do tricks but it's okay cuz he's cute enough to cover that. So I was really happy to see him learning new things. Sometimes my radio show listeners would come to the studio and ask him like "Give me your hands" and he just ignored them. He just didn't know any tricks! My boyfriend taught him a few more similar tricks. I was really proud of Pepe. Sometimes he would do a half ass trick to get his treats, but my boyfriend made sure he rolled over all the way.

This was just one of the things he gained during his second chapter of his life. I hope he was happy.