My sister Evy and I had a dog during our childhood. His name was Ladrillo which in English means Brick. He was a beautiful reddish brown color with his cute little white chest. He was a very interesting-looking dog, most likely a Mutt. The color was deep brownish red and we thought of a brick right away. That’s the reason his name was Ladrillo. My father brought the dog to us when I was 10 years of age and Evy was eight. We fell in love from the beginning. He was small and sweet. He soon became part of the family.

We moved a few times from Puerto Rico to New York and vice versa because of our dad’s work. Ladrillo moved with us too and we thought it was so funny. We called him “the traveling dog with lots of miles”. He got to travel by plane 4 times which back in the 80’s was a big deal. He died of old age and what we think could’ve been some heart condition. We remember him being a bit overweight and was about 12 years old in human years.

I haven’t been able to have another pet after him, he was a special dog. We used to celebrate his little birthdays and get him Christmas gifts. We used to call him our brother and this was just the cutest thing! And yes, the unconditional love thing sounds very cliché, but dogs are just too amazing. If you take the word dog and you reverse it then you get God. I believe that God gives us dogs to remind us of his faithfulness, his love for us, and how he wants to be close to us. Dogs in my opinion are blessings from above, true gifts. If you have one, I hope you are taking good care of your dog and showing unconditional love in return.