My Opinion on 2022

I'd like to be front about this:

Admittedly, 2022 has been an incredibly depressing year for me. From the numerous amount of celebrity deaths, to the many problems my country, America, is currently going through. I think that's pretty much been why my reviewing's been slow this year, and why I haven't exactly been active in the creative aspects. With how saddening things often got, it's been hard to further motivate myself into doing anything this year.

Undeniably, though, the most heartbreaking part of 2022...was having to say goodbye to my 2nd dog: Lady.

She was a beagle whom my family and I adopted 10 years ago, four days before Christmas.

One morning, I found her wandering up and down our street, just following her nose. It was unusual seeing a dog out and about like that, and it was the first time I had ever seen a beagle in my neighborhood at all. Immediately wanting to take action, I let my parents know about it, and my Mom and I managed to pick the beagle up before the dog got too far. We discovered then and there that she was a girl. She had no collar, was infested with fleas, and half of her tail was cropped off. This openly gave indication that she was likely a hunting dog, and that whoever her previous owners were did not treat her well. With no one coming to get her, we took her in ourselves.

We decided to call her Lady because the name was something that seemed to fit like a glove, and we also nicknamed her "Ladybug". These names were ones that she responded incredibly well to.

Ironically, while we thought she was a puppy at first glance, she actually turned out to be much older. After we took her to get fixed, the vets told us that she was likely three years old. Ever since then, my family and I provided the best 10 years of her life, and she provided the best ten years of my life.

However, 2022 proved to be a train wreck for all of us, because Lady had been struggling in more ways than one. She was withering away to skin and bones, not wanting to eat. She didn’t even want to walk around anymore, which only made everything all-the-more painful.

When my parents and I discovered that it was because she was in the final stages of old age, that she may have very well even been two or three years older than 13, and that she was suffering from a neurological disorder, we prayed and waited for her to die on her own, giving her some antibiotics in the meantime. But in the end…we decided it was time to let her go. So, on October 14, 2022, Mom and I took her to one last trip to the vet, where she’d be put to sleep. None of us could stand to see her in so much pain, or be a mere shell of herself.

The only comfort I can really think of now…is that she’s no longer suffering. In spite of her being gone, she's up in Heaven. I know that one day, I'm going to see her again when the time comes.

Here's a picture of Lady, in case you guys are interested:

In the end, 2022 has pretty much been a troubling time for me. I only hope that 2023 will prove to be an improvement among other things, regardless of all the pain and suffering the world has to go through thanks to the curse of sin.