My dogs are now the life of my childhood home. Max was 14 years old when he passed away earlier this semester and Cortland turned 2 years old on July 1st. My home is pretty small so my brother and I caused a lot of noise constantly. Now that Jake is 27, he moved in with his girlfriend so that left the two dogs and I. Being at school doesn't allow much time for me to be home anymore, so we've passed the chaos job down to the two dogs. Ever since I was young the house has been extremely loud. Jake is 6 years older than me so my early memories always have him being a bratty teenager in them. Him and I would fight over everything and anything.

Jake is my half brother so our relationship was always a little weird. I don't remember much normal communication until I was old enough to understand adult humor and have acutal conversations about other people's interests as well. Max was a huge fan of Jake which made me so upset. Max was more of a brother to me than a dog so him and I would also fight. He was constantly disagreeing with me somehow or trying to cause an issue. I was not allowed any moment of peace and vice verse. Every time Max was taking a nap or trying to just hang out I'd throw a pillow at him or toss a blanket on him. Not until I was older did I realize how close Max and I really were. Most kids with siblings "hate" them growing up or have constant issues. That sort of problem is something you cherish when those times are gone. I'm 21 now and my brother and I talk biweekly at most. You tend to forget how good of times you had when you were kids even if that time was spent fighting or arguing over stupid things. Max loved whenever Jake came home, especially when Jake moved out for the first time. He would freak out and sprint to the door which made me so jealous. Even before he passed away Max would never do that for me. But when he started to slow down he became a lot more affectionate towards me which was a great feeling. I think in his head we put our brotherly fighting behind us and just hung out.

Before we got Cortland Max had a ton of energy. We did a good job at getting Cortland just as Max started slowing down. He was a few months into being 12 and noticed that he seemed lonely. Now that I'm older I understand the importance of having siblings for anybody, dog or human. Max wasn't the biggest fan of Cortland in the beginning but it only took a couple days to maybe a week for them to start cuddling and playing together. Cortland would steal everything that Max played with or tried to sleep on but we decided to let Max deak with that himself. He was old enough to handle himself. He became more of a watcher of Cortland than any of us. All the toys became Cortland's and Max made sure he had room wherever Cortland wanted to lay down. They're a good pair, it just took a little bit for everyone to get used to having a second dog.